Talking Back To Your Self

The main art in the matter of spiriual 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 are 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 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 praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.'

- Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Lessons from Psalm 42)