I imagine we all talk to ourselves throughout the day. Sometimes we ask things like, “Where did I put my phone?” Or “What did I come in here for?”

Sometimes we commiserate with ourselves about the driver who just cut us off in traffic or the rude salesperson.

We might berate ourselves when we’ve done something we think is dumb. Or congratulate ourselves when we feel we have done something well.

Occasionally, our self-talk goes much deeper. Hard times come, and we conclude God doesn’t love us. A time of suffering drags on, and we feel there’s no hope in sight.

There are multitudes of reasons to read the Bible. One is that we might discern truth from falsehood–not only in others, but also in ourselves.

I love this quote before from David Martyn-Lloyd Jones in Spiritual Depression:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.”

The psalms provide multitudes of examples of the writer correcting his wrong thoughts and encouraging himself with God’s truth. They show the writer coming to God with a problem or an issue: Where are you? Why are you not acting? The wicked are faring better than Your people. I’m hurting here. People are persecuting me for no reason.

And then the writer reminds himself of truths about his God: He’s here. He loves us. He cares. The wicked will face consequences some day if they don’t repent. God will strengthen me and help me.

We don’t have to live at the mercy of thoughts running rampant or dragging us down. We take our thoughts captive. We can search our Bibles, turn to familiar helpful passages, and ask God to remind us of His truth. We renew our minds with His Word.

(A few lines here have been taken from a couple of previous posts.)

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