Preaching the Gospel to ourselves

It’s a bit of a dreary, down kind of day around our house today. My poor husband has been feeling ill since last night, and has been sleeping away most of the day. I was up with him at several points in the night, and with the baby at other points, so I’m in a bit of a sleepless fog.

I’m feeling a bit discouraged and overwhelmed at the slowness of my hubby’s recovery from cancer. The baby has had a fussy day and doesn’t seem satisfied by much. I showered at around 3pm, and the dishes from lunch are still all over the counters as I write this at 4:33pm, because I just lack the desire or energy to go put them away and get dinner started.

I’ve been feeling uninspired to write on my blog all day, and just read something so simple, yet so refreshing and needed on a day like today. The lovely ladies over at GirlTalk have been posting on a subject that I so badly needed to hear- a simple reminder that we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves.

Perhaps you’ve never heard this phrase before. What exactly does it mean, to preach the Gospel to ourselves? For some of you, you may even be wondering, "what exactly is the Gospel"? This is a quote they used from a book on my reading list for 2008, The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

"…preaching the gospel to ourselves every day reminds us that we are
indeed sinners in need of God’s grace….It helps us to consciously
renounce any confidence in our own goodness as a means of meriting
God’s blessing on our lives. Perhaps more importantly, though,
preaching the gospel to ourselves every day gives us hope, joy, and
courage. The good news that our sins are forgiven because of Christ’s
death fills our hearts with joy, gives us courage to face the day, and
offers us hope that God’s favor will rest upon us, not because we are
good, but because we are in Christ."

When I stop to meditate on the fact that although I deserved nothing but the wrath of a perfect and holy God, but instead I have been utterly forgiven of my every sin through the selfless sacrifice of my Savior, it changes my perspective.

How can I harbor frustration or bitterness when I have been forgiven so freely? How can I allow the trivial issues of today to get me down when I remember that, through no doing of my own, I have been granted eternal life, favor with God and the hope of heaven? How can I cease to have joy in these mundane and difficult moments when I recall the great love and compassion that God has lavished upon me?

If you, like me, need to be refreshed by the truth and goodness of the Gospel in your life, why don’t you join me in practicing a few of these ways that we can preach the Gospel to ourselves?