Day 21

Inner Narrative Pleasing God

Every cycle of seven we offer a summary of some important principles we’ve emphasized. This is our third recap. Please pray:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Day 15 Review

You are not alone. God hears your thoughts. Part of being created as the image of God is that you have the authority to direct your meditations.

In Ephesians 5:10 it’s written that you can try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. To the hidden perfectionist hiding in our consciences, please take note: since pleasing God is something we get the opportunity to gradually learn we can take it for granted that God is not expecting instant maturity or complete holiness. This is true concerning our inner-narrative. Despite being raised in the sphere of darkness we are now in the Kingdom of Light and can be retrained.

We are to speak to ourselves, about ourselves, in a way that would please God. We are to respect ourselves in the meditations of our heart in the same way we seek to honor others when we think of them. We are called to honor the LORD in the way we view ourselves.

In the same way we need to be reconciled to our brothers and sisters before we worship, we should prioritize being reconciled to ourselves. As we are called to dedicate our bodies to God, so we are to offer our inner-narratives. We begin by recognizing the importance of our thought-lives. So much of our self-communications are thought-lies. We are summoned to embrace truth and surrender the way we see ourselves, and the way we speak to ourselves, in the presence of God. Our inner-narratives can be an expression of our worship. May God give us enabling favor to take this seriously.

Teach us to think of ourselves in a way that gives You joy.

Help us offer the meditations of our heart as an act of worship.

Day 16 Review

We worked with this verse to give us positive direction for our inner-narrative.

Become kind toward one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as also God in [the Messiah] has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 Lexham English Bible)

We should treat our souls in the same way we would treat another person. So, this exhortation towards your own self might read like this:

Become kind towards yourself,

Become compassionate towards yourself,

Become forgiving and favorable towards yourself

Talk to yourself in the way God in the Messiah has forgiven and been favorable towards you.

That is how Jesus relates to us. Let’s line ourselves up with Him. He’s our Advocate. Let’s deprive the accuser of any inner influence and imitate the Messiah’s interaction with our souls.

Day 17 Review

We are called to be favorably disposed towards one another to the degree that we forgive those who trespass against us. We are called to forgive ourselves, too. We are to deliberately be favorably disposed towards ourselves in our self-talk.

Your soul exists in the manifest presence of the King. In His presence, you must reject self-directed resentment, or anger. Being grieved at ourselves because of what we have done, or did not do, is an emotion as old as humanity. Being angry with ourselves accompanies that grief.

However, we can take Joseph’s exhortation to his brothers as a pattern for the way we relate to ourselves. When Joseph was revealed as alive, and their benefactor, his brothers were humiliated, frightened, and angry with themselves. Here is what Joseph said:

“Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. (Genesis 45:5)

Joseph was favorably disposed towards his brothers. He forgave each of them. He forgave all of them.

At times we may be grieved or angry with ourselves. When that happens let’s take Joseph’s advice and apply it to ourselves. It will give God’s presence pleasure.

Be favorably disposed towards yourself. Do not allow the sun to go down on any self-directed anger.

Your inner demeanor is to be deliberately kind, helpful, compassionate, and favorable towards yourself.

Let’s identify and reject self-directed bitterness. As we do, we continue to construct a dwelling place for God in our souls that blesses Him and opens us up to knowing Him like He wants to be known. He is favorably disposed towards you. He is not holding your sins against you. Have fellowship with Him.

Day 18 Review

Since we love God, we want Him to enjoy living in us. Sometimes our inner-narrative can be contentious. We can learn to make peace with ourselves and give God’s indwelling presence pleasure.

The Lord wants us to have an inner-narrative that is in fellowship with Him, firmly rooted in reality. We need to yield to God’s evaluation of who we are. We get to actively cooperate in fellowship with His Holy Spirit.

He will guide us in this. He responds to prayer and grants wisdom. With God’s help we will be enabled to grow in discernment, and agree with His perspective. The results of a wisdom guided inner-narrative will be a more fruitful relationship with God. After all, it gives God pleasure when we are wise in our inner directed speech.

The way we speak to others can bring life. The way we speak to ourselves can also bring life.

A soothing tongue is a tree of life, But perversion in it crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:4)

God wants you to have an inner dialogue that is akin to a tree of life.

To develop this we plan to spend time concentrating on identity matters because our true identity does matter. Here’s our plan:

• The first way we are going to approach identity matters is through the Scriptures.
• After that, within Biblical parameters, you will be encouraged to examine your unique sense of calling and destiny.
• Finally, we shall offer encouragement to check out your personal understanding of your identity through the confirmation and cautions of fellow believers.

Day 19 Review

The first in priority identity matter that needs to be integrated into your soul is that you are loved by God. The God who lives in you wants you to know that you are sincerely loved by the God you live within. He wants you to be confident in His calling and deeply rooted in His love. In fact, His specific, focused, love for you is your dwelling place. At the end of the meditation I included a list of Identity Matters. Please reconsider them. Here they are:

1. I live in the love of God.
2. I am loved so much that I have been placed in Jesus.
3. Appraised and prized, I was purchased with the price: Jesus’ blood.
4. I live within the sphere of God’s deep and powerful affection.
5. The Messiah’s love is uniquely directed towards me because I am uniquely lovely to Him.
6. The God who lives within me wants me to know that I am sincerely loved by the God I live within.
7. I am loved by the Father as much as the Father loves Jesus.
8. I am loved by God to the degree that He determined to live within me.
9. He lives in me. I live in Him.
10. I am God’s beloved dwelling place
11. His specific, focused, love for me is my new home.
12. The Messiah, Jesus, commanded me to live in His love for me.
13. His love for me is just like our Father’s love for Him.
14. He persistently seeks to make me aware of His love.
15. He wants me to see myself as loved by God.
16. I am a beloved child of God. That is the truth, and the deepest meditations of my heart are being conformed to this reality.
17. Jesus has an unerring prophetic vision for my life.
18. Even at my worst I was loved so much that God gave me mercy.
19. I am a person who receives mercy every single day.
20. I expect God’s manifested mercy towards me to be the eventual outcome in every circumstance.

Day 20 Review

Our most recent meditation can be summarized in these two statements:

First:

Your love for God is Important to the God you love.

And:

Humanity was created to be the type of creation whose love for the Creator is meaningful to the Creator.

Our Creator has an incredible capacity to create that which would be meaningful to Him. As a result, God treasures you. Also, He treasures your love for Him. When you determine to see yourself like this it gives His presence-in-you pleasure.

God wants you to know that you are loved by Him. That faith gives His presence-within-you pleasure, and He wants you to believe that your love for Him pleases Him.

Having your identity founded upon God’s love for you is beneficial. It honors God’s character, exalts His word, and it is good for us to believe (because it’s true). Another thought, and the point of these meditations is this: when we receive and appreciate His love it gives God pleasure.

Keep seeking to see yourself as God sees you. It will give His presence pleasure.

Along those lines, please deliberately speak to yourself in this manner:

My love for God is a response to His love for me.

My love for God is meaningful to Him.

Please pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, Adonai, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:15 TLV)