Speaking to Your Soul
One of my favorite messages from New Attitude was C.J. Mahaney’s message “The Word of God and Our Feelings” (listen here). It hit home for me so much, especially because I have often struggled with a tendency toward depression. Regardless of your temperament, this message is something you need to hear, because at one time or another, we all experience sadness and a troubled soul. Here are my notes from the message - a little disjointed again. You really should listen to it yourself 
- and at the end, a few extra thoughts.
__________________________________________________________
My inner voice should be saying, “God is near. Run to God.” It should be faith-driven and Christ-centered.
No one is more influential in my life than I am. My internal conversation with myself makes all the difference in the world.
In Psalm 42, we get to “listen in” to the psalmist’s internal conversation.
1. The troubled soul
The troubled soul is downcast and in turmoil.
Three of the psalmist’s soul’s troubles were:
- The apparent absence of God
- A thirsty soul
- An intense passion for God
- Even though he longs for God, he feels distant from God.
- He desires God’s presence but feels his absence.
- The “ebbs and winters” of the soul (Spurgeon?)
- Three who experienced this: Spurgeon, Edwards, and Luther
2. The presence of trials
- Continuous, relentless, overwhelming, and deafening
3. The opposition of men
- From culture
- From the enemy
2. The hopeful soul
Talk to yourself and talk to God.
To yourself:
- Interrupt, question, challenge, rebuke, exhort
- Listening to myself instead of talking to myself is the main problem.
- Talking to myself is a learned skill that requires practice and effort. One conversation won’t be sufficient. It is continuous truth-telling.
- Use rhythm, repetition, and perseverance.
What do I say?
- Look outward and upward.
- Hope in God! He will fulfill His promises.
- Troubled souls cannot be trusted, and circumstances lie to us.
- God is sovereign, faithful and kind! Remember Him!
- “We cannot trace His hand, but we can trust His heart.” (Spurgeon)
- My God, who has pledged Himself to me, will be faithful.
- Search the Scriptures for promises that address my soul’s troubles.
To God:
- Pray and sing His Word to Him.
- Humbly but boldly remind Him of His promises.
- Hasten to the throne of grace.
- He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls.
3. Jesus’ troubled soul
He was forsaken and crushed by God’s wrath.
He was abandoned.
All this was so the souls of sinners would know freedom and forgiveness!
__________________________________________________________
I want to offer you two songs that you can use to talk to yourself and talk to God. The first one is “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” I thought about this song after the message, because it begins “Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s life for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free.” I especially like it because it was inspired by Lilias Trotter, a lifelong missionary to Algeria whom I really look up to (lyrics here).
Second, to talk to God, the hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” has been a longtime favorite of mine (lyrics here). This is one stanza:
Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing
Filed under: Christianity, Struggles on June 4th, 2008
Oh Anna, what a blessing it has been to have a “peak” at your notes. Yours made much more sense than mine did!
I am actually going to print out yours for further reference and reminders.
I too loved this message and am glad you posted about it. Thanks.
The hymns you listed were perfect and beautiful. They go right along with all C.J. said. This whole message is timeless and a great help to me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Beautiful, beautiful post Anna. You know, it feels out of place to me that I too have a tendency toward depression and that pushes me back to my doubting and skepticism. I always wondered how these attitudes could align with genuine Christianity.
Great notes though, they really enlightened me into some new and healthier thinking. I’ll definitely be listening to the message in a bit. (Oh and by the way, I absolutely love Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, such a poetic song).
Thanks so much!
Thanks for posting that link to the audio! It was really encouraging. I hope you dont mind I printed out your notes and hung them on my bathroom mirror to use as a personal tool… they just work very nicely as I have a tendency to despair in tough times. Thank you for that post!
It looks like this was a valuable lecture by C.J…thanks for posting your notes! Another great song is “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” That one always makes me feel comforted!:)
One observation though…my first thought would be to disagree with Mahaney when he says we need to remind God of His promises. I don’t believe God needs to be reminded of anything…rather WE must be constantly reminded of His promises by reading/knowing His word better. We must trust Him more and more but we should not bring Him down to our human level and make Him prove anything to us. He has already done that…we just have to be aware of what He has done even if it was not done in a way we expected or were even happy with at first. I guess I’d have to think about this one a little further but just off the bat, I felt a little uncomfortable with that statement from him.
What a beautiful post and full of such wonderful truths! Thank you for being faithful to our Saviour and being a blessing to my heart as well as so many others!
[...] by C.J. Mahaney. Some of my favorite bloggers - I’m A Teacup, NOT a Sledgehammer, Hope Road, and A Heart Set On Pilgrimage, all recently attended the New Attitude conference where C.J. [...]