Our gospel-centered movement has really latched onto the concept of preaching to yourself. This from Lloyd-Jones has inspired many, and rightly so:
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’. (Spiritual Depression, 20-21)
But even before Lloyd-Jones another great physician of the soul used this counsel. John Newton in his great friendship with William Cowper, in almost every letter exhorted Cowper to preach the gospel to himself. He might not have used those particular words but his exhortation was the same.
Newton understood that Cowper’s mind would often go to dark places. In these times when the lights would go out, Cowper would even turn against his friends. He’d assume that their absence meant a lack of concern. When Newton went on trips to London and other places for a season he’d have to reassure his friend of his love for him. In one particular letter Newton advised his friend to “resist, to the utmost, every dark and discouraging suggestion.”
Newton even closed his letter in a way which was often reserved for those whom he had disagreed with. “I beg an interest in your prayers, and that you will believe me to be, dear sir, your affectionate servant.” Again Newton understood that his friend could turn and think him to be an enemy.
He also believed—likely from his own experience—that the way out of such darkness is to preach the gospel to yourself. Don’t entertain those dark and twisted thoughts when they come. When the lights go out refuse to believe what you see. Realize that your seeing and your perception is off and speak to yourself rather than letting your own dark thoughts speak to you. This was Newton’s consistent counsel to Cowper.
Some have studied the relationship between Newton and Cowper and concluded that the preachers counsel was actually harmful to Cowper. They look at the many bouts of major depression and fits of self-harm that Cowper endured and they say that Newton’s counsel didn’t work. But in my opinion they overlook the decade long reprieve that Cowper had on more than one occasion. Why must Newton be responsible for the madness but not for the healing?
As I look at the relationship between Newton and Cowper my conclusion is that nothing really could have prevented the madness of Cowper. “The Lord holds the keys of comfort” as Newton was prone to say. And for whatever reason, he withheld them for seasons in the life of Cowper. But at times the darkness would give way to the precious light of the gospel. And these times—I believe came from Newton’s continual counsel for Cowper to preach the gospel to himself.
It was a precious discipline for King David. It was precious for Newton and Cowper. It was precious for Lloyd-Jones. And it is precious to us today. Preach the gospel to yourself—don’t let the darkness convince you of its distortions.
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