Explore how faith can transform the narrative of our minds, particularly for those who face the challenge of addiction. This episode seeks to redefine our relationship with God, emphasizing the power of soul communication. Understand how prayer transcends mere requests for help, becoming a dialogue of being and thanksgiving. Discover how embracing the reality of God’s ownership of our souls can lead to spiritual liberation and authenticate one’s identity as a Christian, regardless of life’s many hurdles.
So we’re considering the mind, how faith affects the mind. We’re looking at Romans chapter 9 and the implication for our mental health and our spiritual health of the verses that say, what shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
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Now, all of this implies conversation in the soul. That is to say, talking with God.
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And that, of course, is what prayer is, a conversation, a talk with God, and listening to Him as well. But first of all, we need to recognize that we have a soul. Now you say, that’s pretty obvious, I’m a Christian. Well, it’s not all that obvious. Because many Christians simply go to church, do the works of the church, the works of the law, the witnessing and so forth, but don’t have a personal soul communication with God. And when that happens, the soul gets lonely. Do you know the experience of the lonely soul? I’m talking in relation to the conversations over the last couple of days in regard to addiction. Addiction is isolation of soul, separation of the soul from God. And that results in separation of the soul from the self. In other words, you don’t really know who you are unless your soul is in conversation with God. There’s a description of this communication, this conversation with God in Psalm 63. It’s incredibly intimate when you really ponder it and slow down and think about it. Let me read it to you. O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. Thus I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind you. Your right hand upholds me. You see, here is a man, David, who knew he had a soul.
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The world has forgotten that it has a soul.
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And so the world is empty. And what does it do when the world is empty? It finds itself in panic, in nervousness, in neurosis, in fear, in guilt, in shame. And so it hides from those emotions. by filling life up with pleasure or busyness or work or some addiction of one kind or another. But the soul, you see, must be fed. Now, you may think that I’m saying to you, Look, if you’ve got a drug addiction or an alcohol addiction or whatever, then start talking to God about it. Well, that is true, absolutely, but I’m not talking about that straight away.
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Just acknowledge your presence before God in your soul. Simply say, Father, I thank you that you are here.
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I thank you that in spite of all my problems and troubles and sins and struggles, you love me. Lord God, I don’t know if I’ve ever said this to you, but I’ll say it now, though I can’t say it comes from my feelings.
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I love you.
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You see, the soul needs someone to love, and the soul was created by God. God says in Ezekiel, all souls are mine. He is in possession of our souls. He owns them. We don’t own ourselves. God owns us. And to acknowledge that gives you a sense that you have finally come home, that you have arrived at where you should have been all your life, but you missed it somehow. Now, you see, when you start talking to God, you say, well, what am I going to talk about, Colin? Well, forget your needs for a while. You know how prayer is so very often. Oh God, please help me with this, or please supply me with that, or please give me this. And it’s all begging, really. And it’s okay to beg. God knows our needs, and he’s not resistant to our calling upon him for our needs. But just talk to him about being. Being. Dear God, it’s a beautiful day today. Thank you for the sunshine. Thank you for the blue sky. Lord God, I praise you that you enabled me to get up out of bed this morning, that you have given movement to my limbs, that I’m able to walk, that I’m able to talk to you and see the sky and the beauty of the green grass. Lord God, I thank you that you have preserved me alive right to this day, even though I have forgotten you many times. Now, if you don’t know what to talk to God about, what you do is open the Bible. And I would especially recommend that you open the book of the Psalms, the book, the Psalms, because the Psalms teach us how to talk to God. I have often thought that God allowed David, the chief Psalmist there, to go through so many troubles and that he had to write those troubles down. Well, I’m going a step ahead of myself. He went through so many troubles that he had to call out to God and talk to God about those troubles and talk to God about life itself and all that goes on. And then write them down, his conversations with God, and then set them to music. And then God would plant those psalms right in the middle of the Bible, for you and me to know how to talk to God. So, you take Psalm 63, for example, O God, you are my God, and read it as if you were talking to God yourself. O God, you are my God, early will I seek you. Now, some people will get stressed out of that. Well, I don’t have time to seek God in the morning. I’ve got to get up and go to work. Well, okay, but how about putting the alarm on just ten minutes earlier and lying there still and talking to God in the morning? Lord, this is your day that you have given me. Thank you for waking me up out of sleep. You are my friend. You are my Savior. Now look, you see, in addiction, you may not feel the freedom to do that, to talk to God like that, because addiction makes us feel so guilty, so afraid, so condemned.
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But faith breaks through that condemnation.
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You cannot talk to God and have a conversation with God without faith. Faith in what? Well, faith that Jesus has brought you into the presence of your Father without any condemnation whatsoever. That Jesus is your friend who has taken your sins to the cross so that you are not judged by them. That Jesus died for your sins so that you can consider your human nature as having died with him. Because Jesus died as a representative and a substitute for the whole human race. And so, when we talk with God… We’re not talking with a judge who’s about to condemn us. We’re not trying to twist his arm to make him love us or be kind to us or merciful to us. We’re giving thanks to God because he has already taken care of our sins and cast them into the depths of the sea. Now, when you get into this kind of conversation with God, what you’re doing is your faith is countermanding the tendencies of your mind. The tendency of your mind is to shut God out because he has shut you out. And that’s too painful to feel. So shut him out and forget him. That’s the tendency of the mind. But break through with faith and say, Lord God, I know that my mind wants to believe that you have condemned me and you have forgotten me or you have cast me off. Father, I’m going to believe. It’s the only way I know how to get my soul back. And I’m going to believe that you have received me in Jesus Christ so that all my sins are not brought up before you because Jesus took them on the cross and was condemned for them. And so, Father, I’m coming to you by faith. My mind is screaming at me, telling me that I shouldn’t talk to you, telling me that I have no right to be a Christian.
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And you see, you say, but I do. I do have a right. Do not let your soul disqualify you.
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Don’t let your soul disqualify you in the sense of saying, you can’t go to church. You can’t claim to be a Christian. You’re too much of a sinner. You have too many problems. You have too many addictions. You are a hypocrite. That is what your mind will try to tell you. Your mind will try to disqualify you. Somebody might ask you out of the blue, are you a Christian? And suddenly you are frozen to the ground because you don’t know whether you have the right to say, yes, I am a Christian. And you fear that if you say it, you’ll be a hypocrite. But no. You are free to say, I am a Christian, no matter how many problems and addictions you have, because Christ has opened the way to the Father by taking your judgment upon himself on the cross. And so you can say, I’m a Christian. And then don’t be apologetic and say, but I know I’m not a very good one. No, simply say, I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus has taken all the judgment for my brokenness and sin upon himself, and therefore I know that I’ve received the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. You see, this is how you break through that urge to disqualify yourself. I want to tell you that nearly all addicts in the world disqualify themselves before God.
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They are ashamed. They feel guilt-ridden. They feel condemned and judged.
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And this is where you must allow faith to say no. I am not a Christian by the works of the law. I’m not seeking to present my works before God to declare my righteousness. I’m a Christian by the righteousness of faith. Father, thank you that you treat me as righteous. Thank you that you allow me to come to you in Jesus Christ. I want to start having conversations in my soul with you. Prayer with you, dear God. And when I do that, I know and that I have found myself. Thank you for joining me today. This is Colin Cook, and you’ve been listening to How It Happens, a broadcast now in its 27th year of broadcasting. And it is listener-supported radio. If you would like to make a donation to help it along, you can send it to FaithQuest Radio. I’m sorry, you can send it to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Or you can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thank you so much. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
