Plagued With Blasphemous & Suicidal Thoughts – Lloyd-Jones’ Counsel

“I was saved when I was young. All seemed to go well until my twenties, when I was plagued with blasphemous thoughts, which plagued me day and night for some years. Several ministers advised me to ‘trust the Lord’ or ‘pray about it – but the more I did so, the worse it became! I seriously contemplated suicide. It was at this juncture that I asked Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for help. He did not help me until he was satisfied that I was a Christian. He then diagnosed my problem immediately! He advised me (rather surprisingly) not only never to think about the problem again but never to pray about it either. I was not really ‘praying’, I was simply reminding myself of my problem.

The next week things became infinitely worse! I returned in distress to Lloyd-Jones, who said he had expected it! It was proof that Satan was behind it all, seeking to take control of my thought life. He added a warning not to let Satan do so with any other problem whatsoever. I thank God that the Doctor gave me that advice – the best pastoral advice I ever had. Satan was crushed under my feet – and remains so after all these years. I still wonder at the Doctor’s extraordinary insight – unquestionably God-given. The advice others had given had led me into the grossest bondage.”

Iain Murray said that Martyn Lloyd-Jones counseled believers realizing, “If a Christian feels he is in a state of defeat it is because he is being controlled by his subjective feelings instead of by an understanding of the truth. Deliverance from this condition, therefore, depends upon a total change in approach: Christians are to look not at themselves and their problems but at what God had done for them; their need is not the ‘hospital’ but the ‘barracks’ where they will forget their own ‘troubles and ills’ and learn to fight in the army.”

Lloyd Jones said, ‘We must get rid of that notion of the clinic and the hospital; and we must look at these things more in terms of God and His glory, and the great campaign which He inaugurated through the Son of His love and which He is going to bring to a triumphant conclusion.’

Many Christians have testified to the practical effects of Lloyd-Jones’ counseling along these lines when they were looking for a quite different solution.

This testimony was taken from Banner of Truth’s book, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones – The Fight of Faith, on pages 408 to 409, by Iain Murray. To listen to more resources on the unpardonable sin go to the topic page on illbehonest.com or do as Lloyd-Jones counseled this man never think about the problem again because by doing so you are only reminding yourself of it and playing into Satan’s tactics. So instead of going to the hospital, go to the barracks and fight for the advance of the LORD’s kingdom.