Tell Yourself the Truth by Rick and Cindy Mercer is super good advice.

Morganton Seventh-Day Adventists Church

Tell Yourself the Truth

By Rick and Cindy Mercer

Burke County

Mark was conducting a series of Bible seminars in São Paulo, Brazil when he met a woman named Anna who believed her life was worthless.  She was attractive, intelligent, and outgoing, but extremely depressed.

On her twenty-third birthday she decided to take her own life.  Before ending it all, she wrote letters to her family and her close friends, and she even wrote a letter to God.

Miraculously, at the very time she was writing these letters, the telephone rang.  The person calling had dialed a wrong number, but he immediately sensed Anna’s distress.  He began to gently encourage her and present her with hope.  Then he invited her to some evangelistic meetings that Mark was holding close by her home.  Anna came desiring a new life and longing to be healed from her brokenness.  She came longing for the pain and hurt within to go away.

Anna sat spellbound as Mark talked about how, in Christ, we’re valuable; in Christ we’re loved; in Christ we’re accepted; in Christ we can be made whole.  Anna confronted her self-talk.  She confronted the lies swirling around in her head.  She accepted the truth that in Christ’s eyes she was valuable.  The lie that had imprisoned her unraveled.

As Mark shared the story about Ana, he said, “The truth, of course, was obvious enough.  But it had to sink

The Sermon on the Mount
Carl Bloch, 1890

in.  The Holy Spirit impressed her with reality.  God made that impression real in her mind, and His light shone in her heart.”  This was the beginning of healing for Anna.

Here is the thought that changed her thinking: “He [Christ] made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).  If we are accepted, we are not rejected.  If the Father accepts me through Jesus, then I can accept myself.   When we accept Jesus by faith we reside in His righteousness.  The Father accepts us as He does His own Son.  All of Christ’s good works and His righteous living are credited to our account.  “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)

Mark continued to remind Anna as he does many others that the Father will not condemn His own Son.  Through Christ we are as truly accepted by the Father as if we were His own Son.  He welcomes us.  He embraces us.  He reassures us.  He accepts us. He loves us.  Eternal life is ours!  Heaven is our home.

Through Christ our future is bright.  He accepts us, so we can accept ourselves now and through all eternity.  If He values us that much, we can value ourselves now and through all eternity.  If He values us that much we can value ourselves.  When negative self-talk floods your mind tell yourself the truth.  You are accepted and valued by God!  In the end that’s what really matters.