Have you ever had a bad dream that seemed to last all night? Where you wake up multiple times in the middle of the dream, only to continue the dream when you fall back asleep? And you wonder in the morning, did it really happen? This happened to me a couple weeks ago (I’ll spare you the details of my dream though). I had a series of terrible nightmares all connected and my first thought when I awoke for good this morning was, “Did this really happen?” And then, all within a matter of seconds, I began to be driven by my emotions and think about all the implications if the dream were true.
Thankfully, a Scripture and a conversation brought me back to reality. Philippians 4:8 came to mind, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” After a few minutes of being awake, it was clear that the dream and all the stuff I was thinking about was not true and was going down the path of fear and not trusting in God. Also, last night, Mrs. Patterson and I had a helpful discussion about how easy it is to be driven by our emotions and what we feel (the subjective) and forget about what is true and real (the objective). When we let how we are feeling drive how we are doing, we are basically saying to God, “I don’t trust you. I’m going to seek to find joy and satisfaction in other things besides you.” Essentially, this is an expression of unbelief and at root, pride, that we must run with to the cross and receive the forgiveness that Christ bought with his blood.
Because of the presence of indwelling sin, we must train our minds to start the day, continue the day and end the day with the objective truths of the Gospel in view. We need to as Jerry Bridges says in his excellent book, “The Discipline of Grace”, “Preach the gospel to ourselves.” C.J. Mahaney in “Living the Cross-Centered Life” shares that this means, “Sitting yourself down, grabbing your own attention, and saying, ‘Hey, self, listen up! This is what matters most: You’re forgiven! You have hope! Your hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus. So let’s not view this day any other way. Let this day be governed by this one defining truth.” Strategic use of and memorization of key gospel-verses can be such a help here. Verses like Isaiah 53:3-6, Romans 3:23-26, Romans 5:6-11, Psalm 103:10 can be helpful tools for mornings and days in which we are not feeling well or things aren’t going our way. Psalm 103:10 has been a friend to me over the last couple years as I regularly battle feelings. It says, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” For example, if I’m feeling sick, I might think, “Ughh! I hate being sick! I wish I was better!” and be driven by my emotions and sin by being proud or doubting God’s goodness to me. Or I could use Psalm 103:10 to speak this to my soul, “Wow, if God treated me as my sins deserve, I’d be far sicker… actually, I’d be dead.” That shift in my thinking can make all the difference between a day where I am discouraged and riding the roller coaster of my emotions and a joy-filled day where the grounds of my satisfaction and focus is the Gospel.
Let’s be a community of Christians that let the simple truths of the Gospel amaze us each day as we focus on “What is Real” by preaching the Gospel to ourselves and celebrating the Gospel each day.
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