“Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live…” Isaiah 55:3a

Preach to Yourself

Our heart tells us many things. We’re sure we know our heart one minute, and the next we question ourselves. I remember at several times in my teen and young adult years, I knew “positively, absolutely” that I loved and would marry a certain person. And other decisions were on equally shaky footing: whether I should quit one job to take another, and what direction a career should take, and what I wanted my life to look like. I didn’t have enough experience for a foundation of decision-making. I now know many things I didn’t know then.

One of those things is God’s Word. I don’t know it all, but I know a lot more than I did then. This is one reason we read and study the Bible: we need to know what God says about things. When I have decisions to make now, I have a Book to consult when the answers in my own head are fuzzy.

We cannot and must not rely on our heart to tell us what’s what. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind” or, more literally, “the most secret parts” (Jeremiah 17:9-10a).

Over and over we are warned not to deceive ourselves. Jeremiah 37:9: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not deceive yourselves.’”1 Corinthians 2:18: “Let no one deceive himself.” Ephesians 5:6: “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” 1 John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Our heart is deceitful, and we are told not to deceive ourselves; thus, we must not listen to ourselves.

When our emotions rule, we are listening to ourselves. Instead, we should be preaching to ourselves.The Word of God should be the first thing we tell ourselves.

Everybody hates me. “Jesus loves me” (John 15:9).

I have no future. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

God won’t save me because of all the bad I’ve done. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

God’s very Word is what we should be listening to, because it will never deceive us. It is truth. “The entirety of Your Word is truth” (Psalm 119:160). We need to preach His Word to ourselves!

“Father, You always tell us the truth. Bring Your true words to our minds, that we may remind ourselves. Send us a warning when we are speaking lies to ourselves. Keep us in Your love. Amen.”