We Christians always live in war. The Bible says,
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
The devil is not the only enemy we have. This dark world is another enemy.
But there is one notorious enemy that every Christian should be aware of. That enemy is called our flesh, our old self. This is the enemy that can hurt any Christian more than any of the other two enemies.
Our old-self is always with us even if we are “new creations” in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). The old-self as well as the new-self live in us.
“Do not lie to one another, since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it” Colossians 3:9-10
This old-self is “stripped off with its evil practices” from us but it constantly speaks to our soul according to the will and purpose of the enemy which is to steal, kill and destroy us (John 10:10).
If our soul keeps on listening to this old-self, we live in fear, depression, constant stress and all kinds of emotional and physical ailments which all are caused by our internal self-talk.
However, if we keep on eating and drinking the word of God, our new-self take the lead in speaking to our soul and we live a kind of life the word of God sets aside for us.
I mean, think about it: While the word of God says we are “more than conquerors,” (Romans 8:37) we live in all kinds of defeat, don’t we?
Why?
Mainly because we listen to our old-self.
So, we need to change this pattern, don’t you think so?
Yes, we need to strive to make our new-self strong so it leads our internal self-talk.
For example, I get up in the morning and my old-self says to my soul, “It is a rainy and gloomy day!”
I ignore that and listen to my new-self that says to my soul, “This rainy day is the day that the LORD has made! Get up and rejoice in it! Praise the LORD!”
Do you see the difference?
Guess who was mastering this kind of SELF-Talk in the Bible?
You guessed it! It was David.
Listen to his conversation with his soul:
“Why are you in despair, my soul?
And why are you restless within me?
Wait for God, for I will again praise Him
For the help of His presence, my God.” Psalm 42:11
LOVE IT!
Do you see how David refuses his soul to be down and gloomy? He strives to make his internal self-talk to be according to the word of God.
No wonder David had so many victories in his life!
Let’s try to practice this.
Those two books I recommended to you four or five days ago are helping me a lot in this. So, I recommend them to you again: “Rethink what you think” and “You are what You think” both by Dr. Stoop.
Let’s declare war in our old-self so we silence it. This kind of war is an honorable war before God. ///