Andrew is preaching through Tim Chester's You Can Change at the moment. I normally dread topical series' but have been looking forward to this one.
I meant to read the book myself, and started to, but have been distracted by other things. But I listen to Tim Chester while I jog. I'm very slow so get through quite a lot. Today, Tim told me the difference between legalistic talk and gospel talk. You see, while I'm in the midst of sin it is not good news to be told that I must not sin. It's bad news. If I'm being greedy and you tell me I shouldn't be greedy, your words are condemnation to me, not gospel. This is legalist talk. Gospel talk, on the other hand, tells me that I don't have to be greedy. I have all the riches I could ever want in Christ. I have a father who provides for me, an eternity of good things waiting, so I don't need to be grasping after more stuff.
I'm going to try to change the way I talk to myself. No more shoulds, shouldn'ts, musts or mustn'ts. Instead - cans and don't have tos. Let's see if it makes a difference.
I like that.
ReplyDeleteYou mustn't say "I should change the way I'm talking to myself."
ReplyDeleteI read a book earlier in the year called "Self Talk Soul Talk" - I found it to be useful on this topic too. I wrote about it here: http://mmuser.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-do-you-say-to-yourself.html (how do I insert links into comments??).