A PRICELESS STRING OF SPIRITUAL PEARLS

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

SEPTEMBER 23, 2007

An hour or so before sunrise last Thursday on the final morning of our three day vacation on the Maine coast I was pleasantly surprised by a wonderful experience. My wife was still fast asleep in bed while I was sitting in the dark motel room in an upholstered arm chair with my Bible and note pad on my lap. In spite of having had a good eight hours of sleep, I had very little energy. I felt weighed down and worn out; more so when I remembered that in a few hours we would be in our car headed back to Vermont. I really wasn’t looking forward to the two hundred and twenty mile drive.

Then I started thinking about this morning’s message, which I had been developing on and off for a couple of days and which I had been working on just before falling asleep the night before. There was still a ways to go before it would be finished and my progress seemed to be going very slow. When I thought about the other commitments I had to honor between then and now I felt overwhelmed. A barrage of questions and suggestions suddenly came gushing into my mind. How can you possibly come up with a meaningful message in time, especially with everything else you have to do? Why do you continually subject yourself to this kind of pressure in the first place? It doesn’t get any easier, does it? Week after week you’re faced with the same dilemma. It’s normal for someone your age to feel the way you do? Why don’t you stop fooling yourself and leave the Gospel Ministry to younger men such as Guy and Archie and Larry?

I finally took a hold of myself and asked God to have mercy on me and to help me. I forced myself to turn on the table lamp and began working on this sermon. I’m glad I did because as soon as I read the second sentence of what would had been my opening remarks this morning, I received that wonderful blessing I mentioned earlier.

The following two sentences are what I read from my note pad and how I intended to start today’s sermon. “This morning I would like to pick up where I left off a couple of weeks ago about the necessity of you and me stifling that invisible inner part of us if we want to get ourselves out of the dumps. In so many words I implied it’s as though our inner person has been programmed to start chirping away with a non-stop monologue the moment we awaken.” Those two facts awakened me to the reality of what I had been experiencing that morning. It only took a moment for them to sink in. I immediately felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted off my back and a surge of energy reinvigorated me. And I couldn’t stop thanking the One through whom that wonderful blessing came.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting these one way conversations are wrong. They’re simply part of being human precisely as our Creator intended.  However, if what we find ourselves listening to starts tempting us not to trust or obey Him, then we must take control of our inner self and quickly rattle off a barrage of whatever is true and honorable and pure and lovely and excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Then, instead of being down in the dumps we will be able to rejoice in the Lord and experience the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:4; 7). You and I must develop the habit of not worrying ourselves sick and instead immediately silencing every assertion that perhaps God doesn’t care about us or that He isn’t fair or know what He’s doing or have a handle on things, because nothing could be further from the truth. Such perverted thinking emanates right out of the Bowels of Hell.

In my last sermon I quoted Lloyd-Jones as suggesting: “that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us! Do you realize what this 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 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? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.

Psalms 42:5 (ESV) ⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul? He asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’[i]

“The essence of this matter is to understand that this self of ours, this other man within us, has got to be handled. Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him, condemn him; upbraid him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For that is what he will always do if you allow him to be in control. The devil takes a hold of self and uses it in order to depress us.  We must stand up as this man did and say: ‘Why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted within me?’ Stop being so! ‘Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance,’ He, ‘who is the health of my countenance and my God.”[ii] I ended my sermon by saying; “Engaging in that kind of spiritual warfare my friends is what I consider to be taking advantage of, metaphorically speaking, the most underutilized antidepressant.[iii]

In my opinion one of the greatest hindrances to receiving this spiritual antidepressant is the fact that all too many Christians don’t know how to talk to God Biblically. And they don’t know how to talk to Him Biblically because they aren’t all that familiar with what the Bible has to say. And they aren’t all that familiar with what the Bible has to say for a couple of primary reasons. One: The church they attend conducts the Sunday service in which the eternal truths contained in the Bible plays second fiddle to something or someone else. It may be music or some form of entertainment, or perhaps a charismatic preacher proclaiming a health and wealth Gospel, or a gloom and doom soon to be end of the world guy and his silliness, or some social or political concern or a particular object which is the main focus of the service. The second reason some Christians aren’t all that familiar with what the Bible has to say is because they honestly aren’t all that interested in what the Bible has to say. And I don’t know which of the two reasons I have just mentioned is worse; do you?

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying these Christians aren’t interested in what God has to say because they are. It’s just that they tend to put more credence in their dreams or feelings and or signs, or that inner voice that they use to guide them. Some actually close their eyes and open the Bible pointing to a spot in it. When they open them again they read what their finger is pointing to and consider that to be what God is communicating to them at that particular moment in time.

After receiving that wonderful blessing last Thursday morning I was so grateful and energized that I decided to compile a list of things I was going to say about God to my inner self the next time Satan conned that part of me into trying to get me to throw myself into the dumps. I thought I would try to make it into a little booklet to keep inside my Bible for quick reference.

I would start by reminding my inner self that on the other side of eternity there was only God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit plus nothing or no one else. This Triune Being decided to display the glory of His eternal power, and of His infinite wisdom and goodness by creating the world and everything and everyone in it, whether it be visible or invisible, and He would do this in the space of six days. When He finished creating He would be able to declare that it all was very good. I would remind my inner self of what the divinely inspired author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote to his fellow Christians.

Hebrews 1:2 (AMP) ² [But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order].

Speaking of Jesus and His role in creation, the Apostle John tells us: John 1:2-3 (AMP) ² He was present originally with God. ³ All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being.

I would continue talking to my inner self and reminding him that in the beginning: Genesis 1:2 (AMP) ² The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.

Job 26:13 (AMP) ¹³ By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.

Job 33:4 (AMP) ⁴ [It is] the Spirit of God that made me [which has stirred me up], and the breath of the Almighty that gives me life [which inspires me].

Romans 1:20 (AMP) ²⁰ For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],

Jeremiah 10:12 (AMP) ¹² God made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding and skill stretched out the heavens.

Psalms 104:24 (AMP) ²⁴ O Lord, how many and varied are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures. I would continue speaking and reminding myself of some of God’s divine attributes. For instance;

Psalms 33:5-6 (AMP) ⁵ He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the loving-kindness of the Lord. ⁶ By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.

Proverbs 3:19 (AMP) ¹⁹ The Lord by skillful and godly Wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding He has established the heavens.

Genesis 1:1 (AMP) ¹ IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. Again, speaking of Jesus, the Apostle John wrote:

John 1:2 (AMP) ² He [Jesus] was present originally with God.

Genesis 2:1-3 (AMP) ¹ THUS THE heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ And God blessed (spoke good of) the seventh day, set it apart as His own, and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had created and done.

Exodus 20:8-11 (AMP) ⁸ [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].

Genesis 1:31 (AMP) ³¹ And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (suitable, pleasant) and He approved it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

After once again reminding my inner person of these eternal truths concerning His power and wisdom and the fact that everything He has created belongs to Him, including everyone I hold dear and precious to me, and everything that I possess; I would rattle off a barrage of additional facts concerning my Lord and my God, and why I shouldn’t be worried or depressed regardless of circumstances. For instance:

Psalms 23:6 (AMP) ^{6 “}Surely only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,” and that includes this very difficult circumstance I’m experiencing at this very moment. I would continue speaking to myself and reminding me of what I can do through Christ.

Ephesians 3:12 ¹² In Whom, because of [my] faith in Him, [I can] dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

Hebrews 4:16 I’m going to ¹⁶ fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that “I” may receive mercy for “my” failures and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when “I” need it].

Can you believe this awesome Being has invited me to break in on Him at any time in prayer just as I did last Thursday morning while I was sitting in that dark motel room with my Bible and note pad on my lap? I don’t need an appointment anymore than I did when I finally got tired of listening to myself trying to drag me down into the pit of discouragement. Listen to Jesus as He instructs us how to pray.

Matthew 6:6 (AMP) ⁶ But when you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open. We must remind ourselves of the fact that, even though we can’t see Him, He’s close by.

Psalms 145:18 (AMP) ¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth. And didn’t I experience the truth of that promise last Thursday before sunrise.

I can even approach Him during those times when I’m listening myself trying to talk me into not trusting Him and worrying myself sick; all I have to do is draw near to Him. And guess what will happen?

James 4:8 (AMP) ⁸ Come close to God and He will come close to you. And I knew my Creator was right there with me in that dark motel room. I have to echo the sentiment of the Psalmist

Psalms 65:4 (AMP) ⁴ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You choose and cause to come near,

Psalms 16:11 (AMP) ¹¹ You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, [such as my early morning experience] at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Psalms 33:13 (AMP) ¹³ The Lord looks from heaven, He beholds all the sons of men. And when I stopped listening to myself ramble on and on with those discouraging suggestions; I drew near to my Creator, and I’ll never get tired of telling anyone willing to listen how He drew near to me and how He greatly He blessed me. So much so, that I diligently searched the Scriptures to come up with these particular verses. I’m not finished yet. There’s a lot more I’ve already tucked away. Please let me know of any favorites you might have. By the grace of God, when I put them all together we’ll have what I believe will be A PRICELESS STRING OF SPIRITUAL PEARLS.

[ii] Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, © D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1965, Eerdmans Printing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 20-21.

[iii] THE MOST UNDERUTILIZED ANTIDEPRESSANT.