Preaching to Ourselves

A friend shared this song a couple of weeks ago and it has greatly been ministering to my heart. In fact, I've just been listening to it on repeat. It's lyrics are rich with what God has done for us in the gospel and my heart desperately needs to hear it over and over again.

Have you ever just felt dry? The gospel is the good news of what Jesus did for us, in fact, it's the best news. But, if I'm honest, I can just feel dry at times. I can lose my joy. The gospel can grow cold and stale. The problem here is not with the message, it is with my heart. 

As Christians, we all go through this at times. If we're not careful, we can think the gospel is something we're supposed to share with lost people. However, we need it to refresh and revive our hearts daily. We need reminded because we're a forgetful people. We live in a fast-paced, information driven culture that quickly moves on to the next thing and forgets what just happened. 

In his book "Note to Self", Joe Thorn says, "Our imperfect obedience brings pleasure to God because of Christ's substitution. Therefore preaching to ourselves puts us into a cycle of law and gospel where we move from our guilt and need to God's grace and provision and then back to the law as joyful and free obedience."

We can never leave the gospel. It's crucial to our lives and it is the best news we possibly can hear or share. We need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves daily. We need to sing the gospel, read the gospel, pray the gospel, text the gospel, tell the gospel to one another, and meditate on the gospel. We need to hear it a thousand times a day in a thousand different ways. Our hearts need watered and nurtured with the message of the freedom we have been given in Christ.

So let's sing song with rich lyrics, let's memorize Scripture, let's read good books that point us to the gospel, and let's keep our hearts focused and filled with the only message on this earth that has any power.