Day 18

Inner Narrative Pleasing God

We have all experienced pain. Pain in our bodies tends to capture our attention more than the rest of us which may feel fine.

As with physical pain, emotional pain tends to attract the attention of our souls. Negative criticism goes deeper than praise. We tend to internalize shame. It is easier to maintain a rotten attitude towards ourselves than to stop, turn around, and determine to edify ourselves.

It is difficult to reorient our meditations and how we view ourselves. To begin to accomplish this requires a strong motivation. I suggest that you choose this one: Develop your inner-narrative in a way that gives God pleasure.

Do you agree with the following?

Nobody wants to live in a house where there is constant quarreling, accusations, and conflict. A sacred proverb states:

Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife. (Proverbs 17:1)

God lives within our house (body) together with us (2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:22). We dwell within our bodies and our bodies are a significant part of us (2 Corinthians 5:1–3). How significant? Please note the emphasis in Scripture on the resurrection Philippians 3:21). God has united Himself to us within our bodies. He and we are both in residence.

Since we love God, don’t we want Him to enjoy living in us? Sometimes our inner-narrative can be quite contentious. We can learn to make peace with ourselves and give God’s indwelling presence pleasure.

We may be those who argue with God about ourselves. He calls us worthwhile and sees us as worthy of great love. We need to yield to His evaluation. Actually, we need to cooperate.

Contention

Why should our Father experience this?

It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious (member of our household). (Proverbs 21:9)

Let’s learn from God about who we are in His sight. We can learn to come into harmony with what we understand to be His perspective.

To underscore our goal, let me ask, what type of inner-attitude should we cultivate? Our last entry included this thought: Your inner demeanor is to be deliberately kind, helpful, compassionate, and favorable towards yourself.

This was derived from Ephesians 4:32. That verse contains relational instructions to a community of believers. It is a good summary of holy, wholesome attitudes towards each another.

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)

These same principles can be righteously applied to our inner-narrative. They should be.

Part of this process begins as we make progress in apprehending and holding fast to our true identities.

Identity Matters Because Identity Matters

In Ephesians 4:28 the thief is not told to stop stealing. He’s told to stop stealing, start working, and give to those in need. In the same way, having identified patterns of rotten inner-speech, we might do well to embrace elementary truths about our identities.

It’s not enough to banish bad beliefs and rotten attitudes. We need to be refilled with loving-truth. Please read the following familiar warning, it is certainly applicable.

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43–45)

The devil is an accusing liar (John 8:44). Therefore, treat insights that are weaponized to wound your soul as if they were unclean spirits. Then be refilled with true truths…

Listen, truths can be used to deceive others. There are half-truths, twisted truths, truths out of context, truth exaggerated… Truths are not always true. As much as possible we need to be filled with true truths. We need truth mediated by loving-wisdom.

We need wisdom from above to discern, from God’s perspective, that which is true (James 3:17).

To do that we shall spend time concentrating on identity matters because our true identity matters. 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.

Eat From the Tree of Life.

As we begin to examine aspects of our biblical identity, let’s address our capacity to exercise our ability to choose. To develop an inner-narrative that is consistently pleasing to God we must begin with a decision. In Deuteronomy, Moses is quoted as exhorting Israel, “Choose life…”

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, (Deuteronomy 30:19)

This is important.

The context is obedience and blessing as opposed to rebellion and destruction. However, there is a principle employed here that is foundational: we can choose to experience life within our inner-narrative. In fact, we should desire this.

Here is a fundamental principle found in Psalm 34:12-14.

Who is the one who delights in life, and loves to see good days? ¹⁴Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking treachery. ¹⁵Depart from evil and do good. Seek shalom and pursue it. (Psalm 34:13–15 TLV)

Desiring a good life and a lot of it is godly, not carnal. Some may think this verse is a spiritually inferior “Old Testament” emphasis upon the bounty of the material creation. Yet, Peter quoted this psalm (1 Peter 3:10–12).

We are creatures that desire life. We desire the type of life we would love to live. This is not talking about something ethereal. The material realm – especially in the way we relate to other humans – is infused with spiritual reality. God created it. He said it was good. Creation really was effected by humanity’s fall. We dragged it down. Despite that, it is still good. And we have a choice to make. We can choose life, symbolized by the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life was present in the beginning (Genesis 2:9). The Tree of Life is a representation of the goal of our existence at the end (Revelation 2:7). In the right order, God wants us to eat from this tree. He wants us to live. In Proverbs the Tree of Life is identified with Wisdom (Proverbs 3:13,18). Wisdom chooses life. Those who hate wisdom love death (Proverbs 8:36).

There is such a thing as a wisdom guided inner-narrative.

Please read Proverbs 8:36.

But whoever fails to find me (Wisdom) harms his life— all who hate me (Wisdom) love death.” (Proverbs 8:36 TLV)

In that verse we find that an aspect of the Biblical worldview is that people can injure themselves. It’s true, and we may have a tendency to do that in the way we relate to ourselves. But God is willing to help us choose life.

The results of a wisdom guided inner-narrative will be fruitful relationships that communicate and impart the nature of its source.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who is wise wins souls. (Proverbs 11:30)

Although the following verse is found in the midst of a prophetic lament and denunciation, the identification of God as our Father and friend is really edifying.

“Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth? (Jeremiah 3:4)

Father is our friend who will guide us. He will lead us into wisdom concerning our true identities (Psalm 25:4–5).

One last thought before we pray… 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.

Pray to be taught by God:

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4–5)

My Father and my Guide, I choose life. Teach me how to view myself so that the words of my mouth and my hearts deepest thoughts would give Your presence pleasure.

Cause my inner demeanor to be deliberately kind, helpful, compassionate, and favorable towards myself.

In Your presence, I choose life.

Verses Cited

Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (2 Corinthians 6:16)

in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. (2 Corinthians 5:1–3)

who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:21)

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)

For, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. “He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it. “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:10–12)

Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2:7)

How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding. … She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who hold her fast. (Proverbs 3:13,18)

“But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death.” (Proverbs 8:36)