“Many of the problems Christians have come from listening to themselves instead of talking to themselves.” – Sinclair Ferguson
What do you say to yourself? Truth. God’s truth—over and over.
The difference seems subtle—more felt than defined. If it’s all internal, how do you know when you switch from passive listener to your thoughts into an active shaper? There’s no solid answer to that. You know when your conscious self steps in with a mental heavy hand and says, “Now listen up, God loves you!” But that’s pretty rare.
You should at least do some “active listening” to your inner dialogue and determine which side is telling you the truth. Then give that side the floor. This is the challenge for Christians—we are conflicted selves. Every person is conflicted to some degree, but as you grow in your faith, the different voices inside you—the different competing selves—begin arranging themselves more neatly into two camps.
You have an old self and a new self, a sinful nature and a Spirit-of-God nature. You may wear different hats and have various common experiences and communities, but ultimately your thoughts, desires, and choices will align on one side or the other of this great divide.
As the spiritual battle lines sort themselves out, you can experience more power and peace during your skirmishes of conflicted desires. Why is there a part of me that wants to bury myself in addiction and comfort? Ah, that’s my old self trying to take over again.
This is great news for spiritual motivation. Paul says, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (Colossian 3:9-10). When you feel the urge to lie or cover-up, you can say to yourself, That’s not you anymore. You don’t have to live that way. You have a new identity that lives by a new set of rules, with a new source of power.
This is also an enormous comfort when dealing with intrusive thoughts, which often spirals into guilt—Oh my goodness, how can I think like that? How can I want that? I’m a disgusting human being. Not true. Your old self was disgusting, but that’s not you anymore. Old habits die hard and so does the old self.
Your old self is like an old, stained sweatshirt. Your new self is a beautiful new sweater. You took that sweatshirt off, but for some reason you can’t toss it till the end of the day. It stares at you from where you laid it at the bottom of your bed. You’ve got a lot of good memories in that sweatshirt. It looks so comfy. You pick it up, think about putting it on, then remember it’s stained and gross; you have a beautiful sweater now.
The way you become more of your new self as a Christian is simple and indirect. You learn. Paul says you’re renewed in knowledge after the image of your creator. Let’s say you move to North Carolina. You’ve got your driver’s license and utilities set up. No one’s going to revoke your license because you don’t have a clue about the state history. But learning will help. It will begin to smooth some of the bumps of your experience. It will explain things you thought were weird or dumb. As you gain knowledge of the state, you will intuit what it means to live fully as a North Carolinian. As a Christian, press on in gaining knowledge of who you already are and are becoming in Jesus. You’ll be better equipped to talk yourself into who you want to be.
How can you find happiness? Live like you’re a TV extra.
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