Episode #32 Letting God In On Your Self-Talk – Know Who You’re Listening To

So, let's talk about self-talk.

Most of us have self-talk going all day long. Whether out loud or internally in our own minds, we'll have thoughts and feelings about how excited or nervous or frustrated we are about something. Think about it. Even right now, you are thinking to yourself about what you think about what I'm communicating to you.

Humans are communicators, and we're often talking with ourselves about things. Now these are just random comments that I'm making to myself, but the beautiful thing is God knows all of our thoughts. He knows everything we say with our mouth. He knows everything that we think in our minds. He knows the longings of our hearts. He knows it all even before we say them out loud. And so because he's ever present and he knows all things, every random moment, every internal commentary on what you notice or like or don't like, about something in your day can become an uncommon but beautiful way to connect in conversation with God.

We'll talk about how to practically apply this here in a minute, but first I want to give you an example from scripture.

We're going to be in Luke chapter seven, and this is the story of the sinful woman who comes to Jesus when he has been invited to have a meal at a Pharisees house.
And so the sinful woman comes and her tears anoint Jesus' feet, and she dries them with her hair, and then she anoints him with this very expensive perfume.

What we're talking about here isn't in how she anointed Jesus, although that is beautiful. But we're going to take a look at what happens in the exchange between the Pharisee and Jesus.

In Luke 7:39-40, it says, "Now, when the Pharisee, who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him for she is a sinner.' And Jesus answering said to him, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' And he answered, 'Say it, teacher.'"

I'm only reading those verses here because it demonstrates the opportunity that we have to engage in conversations with God based on our own internal self-talk. Simon didn't say to Jesus. You don't know who this is. He said to himself.

In the King James version, it even says he spoke within himself. This is self-talk happening for Simon, but Jesus responds to him. It's such a concise example of this invitation for every self-conversation to turn into a God conversation.

So, when this happens, there's probably a lot of different ways that a conversation can begin with God, but I have found it to be helpful in three different ways.

The first one is simply pausing to see if there's anything that God wants to initiate with me. Jesus initiated this conversation based on Simon's self-talk. "Hey, I have something to tell you." And then Simon invited him and said, "Yes. Okay, let's talk about it." Sometimes it's simply having that momentary pause, that momentary awareness to leave space to hear God say to me, "Hey, I have something I want to say to you about this."

The second one is turning it into a question. "Man, I'm so frustrated right now. God, is there something you want to say to me about this? Is there some insight that you can give me about it?"

And then the third way is simply taking my own internal dialogue and telling God more about it. "God, I know that you know what's going on right now, but I just need to tell you about it. God, I can't believe this has played out the way that it has. I'm so frustrated."

There are times when my own internal self-talk helps me let of some steam but isn't necessarily life-giving. It's not necessarily useful or productive or encouraging. Even in times where I find myself saying, "Man, I'm just so tired. Ugh, I'm so tired. I'm so tired." And it seems like every time I say that I feel even a little bit more tired because I'm just repeating the same thing over and over myself. Instead, there's opportunities to turn that into a conversation with God.

"God, I'm so tired. I feel spent and I know that I need you. God, will you help me in this? God, I feel so tired right now. What should I do about it? I have a few minutes, God, what can I do that would be refreshing? God, I recognize that I need your perspective here. What would you tell me about how I'm feeling right now?"

All of these are small opportunities that we can take advantage of in any moment of our day to have an uncommon but powerful conversation with God.

And so, our question for today is going to come a little bit differently. I want you to take an item of self-talk Maybe it's something that's coming up later in the day, or you're processing something that happened recently or even a thought that you have about this specific podcast episode, and I want you to turn that self-talk into a question for God and ask him:

God, what else would you have to tell me about this?
Then follow the conversation with him wherever he would lead it.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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