Listen to these gems from the old doctor— Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book ‘Spiritual
Depression’: “I say that we must talk to ourselves, instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. 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?
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why are you downcast?’ You must exhort yourself— ‘Hope in God!’ And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is, and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with the psalmist: ‘I shall yet praise Him!’ ”
That is some of the best pastoral wisdom you will ever read!
Pastor Paul
