Last week, I had the awesome opportunity to be a part of the birth of my great nephew, Malakai. It is amazing how God can show Himself in so many ways, as a new life is brought into the outside world. As I pondered the experience, one thing God reminded me is the power of spoken truth.
A couple of weeks ago I read, The Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney and just now I am reading ” Humility, True Greatness”. One thing CJ reminds us in both books is that we spend much of the time listening to ourselves instead of speaking to ourselves.
Martyn Lloyd Jones in his book Spiritual Depression says, “Have you realized that most of our unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.”
Now you may say, what does this have to do with Malakai’s birth? Well, for those of you who have labored with a child know how hard it is to cope with the pain. I would even estimate that natural childbirth is one of the most painful things physically we can go through as far as short term pain. Sarah, Malakai’s mother had a a rough labor. Her pain was intense, but her composure was incredible. This composure allowed her to endure the pain and actually help her progress in labor much faster. I dare to say the key to her sucess in natural childbirth was due to the fact that she was not listening to herself but rather speaking to herself. If she would have listened to herself, she would have been saying to herself, ” THIS HURTS and I CANNOT COPE!” She would have screamed and cried and tensed her whole body, which when thinking about it would not have relieved the pain nor would it have helped her progress in labor. While the pain was intense, she did not allow her thoughts to dwell there, instead she spoke truth to herself. “This hurts, but relaxing will help me to progress so that I can see my baby all the sooner.
Now due to the nature of the pain, I must say that Sarah was not capable of talking to herself the entire time. There were times when she needed reminders. She had a support team, to speak to her and while at times her head was disagreeing , her body followed the encouragement of the words of truth around her. I just remembered Sarah’s mom saying, You have control! You are in control!”
Isn’t that the truth in our spiritual walk?
God wants us to speak truth to ourselves so we can get through this life with Love, Joy, Peace Patience Goodness and Self Control. We have control!
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greather than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4.4
Like Sarah, there will be times, when we are weak and the pain and suffering is more than we can handle on our own. How great is our God that He has given us the Body of Christ as a support team to speak truth to us when we are too weak to withstand the pains of life, yet we as believers cannot only rely on our stonger brother’s and sisters in Christ without being filled with the truth ourselves. If Sarah had not already been grounded in the truth before the pain came, she would not have been as able to trust the support that was around her. That was not the case. Sarah was prepared for the battle. The weeks and months prior to Malakai’s birth, she studied and planned for this day. We too need to be studying the one who has the answer and the truth.
We can only speak to ourselves if we get to know the one who can supply all our needs. A dear friend reminded me recently. In a dog fight, who will win? The answer is the dog we feed the most. If we listen to ourselves and not God, we will surely lose the battle! However, if we go to God and fill ourselves with His truth, when the battle comes, we will be victorious.
In the next week, be aware of when you are speaking to yourself, and when you are listening to yourself. Fill yourself with God’s word, so when temptation comes you will be able to stand a against the schemes of the devil.
