Preach the Gospel to Yourself

One of the reasons why many of us have difficulty trusting God is that we doubt His willingness to keep His promises to us.  We know that God is faithful and will keep His promises, but we still struggle with our own worthiness to receive those promises.  Why would God want to use me?  Why would He bless me, look what I've done.  Because we struggle with this, our problem is not with God's promises but with the Gospel itself.

Christians know that we are saved by grace through faith, but we somehow come to believe that God's desire to bless us is tied to our performance.  Now, I recognize that faith without works is dead.   Our faith does lead us to obedience, but we never have a perfect obedience.  Most of recognize that and are well aware of our shortcomings.  When we see our failures, we doubt that God really wants to bless us. 

Our problem is that we spend too much time focusing on ourselves rather than Jesus.  We know we are saved by grace but we must always recognize that we are kept by grace.  In order to remember that, we must preach the gospel to ourselves.  How do I do that?  Here are a few suggestions.

1.  Meditate on the greatness of God.  Most of us enjoy the wonders of creation.  When we see them, we marvel at God's greatness and power for the heavens declare the glory of God.  When we see how great God is we must ask what the psalmist asked, who is man, (who am I) that God would consider him (me).  The answer is grace.

2.  Meditate on the sinfulness of sin.  As long as I justify my behavior, I can never really appreciate the truth of the gospel.  Most of us do not want to think that we are all that bad, after all I am better than you.  But our standard is not men, but a holy God.  When I meditate on my sinfulness, I realize I have no excuse.  The only hope I have is grace.

3.  Meditate on the cross.  John Stott in his book "The Cross of Christ" said, "Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size."  When we realize what Christ has done for me, I know my only hope is grace.

We all need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday.  We must sing the words of that great hymn, "The Solid Rock", "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness."  My only hope is that my sin is covered by the blood of Jesus and when I stand before God I will be covered with Jesus' righteousness."  Because of the gospel, I know that God wants to bless me.  Do you know that?  Think about it.