Most of Jesus' Teaching is Psychological in Nature

[BrendanG]

Jesus was primarily concerned with a person's inner life; in other words, how one felt and thought. Prayer, for instance, ought not to be concerned with asking God to change outward circumstances, but to change one's inner self. Most of Jesus' teachings are most useful when interpreted in a psychological manner. He is the best guide there ever was for navigating one's inner self.

Jesus is not a nanny who will take away all trouble and suffering in life and make things easy. God lets bad things happen to good people all the time; so evidently, his idea of good is different than what seems intuitively good to people. If you pray to God to change your heart, God will certainly grant your request, but you will probably find that if you ask him to make your material circumstances better, he often doesn't listen.


Here are a collection of quotes from the Bible to back up my assertion that God only really cares about your heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." -- Jesus is not asking you to perform a particular action. He is asking you to orient your heart.

"...those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defiled a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." -- It is not outward actions, but the heart which defiles a man

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." -- Get your inner self right, and your outer self will become right automatically

Here is a passage from the Gospel of Thomas. I realize it's not in the Bible cannon, but it's possible that early Christians read it before the cannon was standardized. It is in the same spirit regardless: "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you."

All the Beatitudes are focused of course on your heart (poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, etc)


Taken in the context of correct psychological orientation, many other passages may make more sense.
"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

When have you ever heard of a Christian causing a literal mountain to jump into the sea? I have never heard of it. I believe the correct interpretation for everyday use is to think of the mountain as some obstacle inside the self which blocks you from becoming the person you want to be. If you have even the tiniest bit of faith, you will be able to become the person that you ought to be. The mountain will move.

Likewise, for the mustard seed growing into a great tree. It takes time to grow into a new person, but even the tiniest start can be enough.

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." -- In the spirit of the other interpretations, it seems reasonable to think of snakes as malicious people, and the poison as hurtful deceit. A person with the right orientation can deal with vicious people and lies and not be inwardly harmed.


If you are not convinced yet, consider Jesus' promise: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." How many of you have asked for a material thing in faith, and not have it given to you? I would assume that all sincere Christians have done this. And yet we still lose our loved ones and our health and our jobs, and eventually we all die. So, is Jesus a liar?

I believe the resolution to this is that Jesus means for you to ask for your heart to be oriented properly. Ask, "What can I do better?" and an answer will be given. I have been doing this for years, and there is not a single instance in which my prayer has not been answered. It is for this reason that I believe this is the significance of Jesus' promise. It is not a promise to change your external circumstances, but a promise to help you change yourself. If you interpret his promise to be oriented towards material things, then common experience makes Jesus into a liar. But if you interpret it to mean that he will help you be like him, you will find that he keeps his promises.

If you are in a situation like Job, where you are suffering and don't know why, it's possible that all that's expected of you is to suffer patiently. But you should still ask and see if you get an answer.


Jordan Peterson gave a very good interpretation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He said it means that you should first am at the highest thing that you can possibly imagine, and then act in the moment in what way you can to make it happen. If you do this, all of your material needs will sort themselves out of their own accord in the best possible way. This is a promise, and it is one that you can test. I encourage everyone to test it.


How to Pray?

I've read several books on prayer, both from an Orthodox, and from a Protestant perspective. I always came to the conclusion that I cannot tell the difference between my own voice and God's voice. It caused me a great deal of frustration.

The frustration ended when I realized that whether another voice comes from another human's throat, or my own mind, or from God, I can't force any of these voices to speak to me. I can only be ready to listen when they speak. I cannot be responsible for making God talk to me. It is impossible. I can only be responsible for listening.

So here is how you pray: it is fine to ask for things, or to struggle with a problem and just try to articulate what is going on in your head. The important part is to listen to what happens next. The answer could come from another person's mouth, or from an event, or a thought that appears in your head. Did the answer come from God, or your own thoughts, or from accidental circumstance? Who knows? But the answer will come. If you ask in sincerity to become a better version of yourself, an answer will come. It is like a law of nature. I have so much experience with this, if you say that you have done this and it didn't work, it will sound to me like you jumped off a building and did not fall. Often the answer is immediate, but sometimes it takes time. But I have no experience with unanswered prayers of this sort.

God will not necessarily wave a magic wand to make you smarter or richer or to have more opportunities than you have. But if you ask in sincerity what you can do in your actual circumstances to be better inside your heart, and you listen, an answer will come.

Practice prayer like this, and you will teach yourself (or is God teaching you?) to become the person that you ought to be.


Some more psychological wisdom:

I thought when I was younger about the actual meaning of things like pride, and worship, and sin. I came to these answers:

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. Humility consists in not doing this. Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

I personally believe that the only 2 valid reasons to feel good are 1. self-congratulation for good effort and 2. gratitude for stuff outside of our control. This is because our effort is the only thing that we truly have control over. No one else made us try. So, congratulate yourself for trying. It also seems to me that if you feel good for having genuinely done good, then you will want to do it again, and that is good. But nothing else is truly within our power to bring about, so, we must acknowledge it and be grateful for it. Even breathing, is in the end, outside of our control. In the end, we will all suffer some kind of accident or sickness which will take our breath away, no matter how much we will it otherwise.

Worship consists in recognizing something as a source of value. Everyone worships something, or else his life would seem meaningless and pointless and he would not do anything. A person should worship God. From our limited understanding, God in our minds is whatever we imagine the best and the highest to be. Do not worship anything less than what you can recognize as the best.

Sin is when our actual values to not align with our stated values. For a Christian, his stated values are God's values. But everyone who has a moral ideal has an idea of sin (where he has fallen short of his ideal), even if he isn't aware of it. Your actions show off your real values. This is how it is possible for one's stated values to be different from one's actual values. I believe God only really judges you on your values.

This also explains the faith/works dichotomy. Your actions come from your beliefs. And you assign your beliefs by acting. You are saved by faith, but works will come automatically from your faith, according to your understanding and your strength.


Here is some more psychological wisdom from Jesus:

Judgment -- "How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I was confused as a child when I read this, because the implication seems to be that if you are judging someone, that you are necessarily a hypocrite. But how can it always be that everyone who judges is always a hypocrite? Eventually, I had the realization that when I felt the emotional need to judge somebody else, it was a way of distracting from my own insecurity. I believe I can see the same tendency in other people. If you see something wrong in another person, and it truly doesn't affect you, then why be concerned with it? If you are concerned with it, that is a very good sign that you see something of yourself in that person, and that is why you hate it so much.

I do not think this applies to situations where we have to make a decision. You have to decide, for instance, "Should I work for this person?" "Should I trust this person?" "Should I marry this person?" I do not think these kinds of judgments are necessarily sinful. It is impossible to live without them. It is when we are judging without a purpose that we should stop and reflect.

Worry -- "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Considering that there are many passages in the Bible where "days" refer to indeterminant periods of time, I believe a good modern translation for this passage would be, "Do not worry about those things in the future which may or may not happen. There is always enough trouble in the present."

Worry is always in vain. If we knew how to solve a problem, we would do it. When we do not know how to solve a problem, but concern ourselves with it incessantly, that is worry. But if you cannot stop evil from coming, why worry? Your hair will turn gray with or without your worry.


There are many other things that could be said, but you will have to go on your own journey.




You may not have heard anyone say before that when Jesus said that you could move mountains, he meant that you could move yourself. But I think this is the only way of interpreting it without history making Jesus into a liar. There are no moving mountains. If the psychological interpretation is true, however, that's good news for you, because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

 

[timothyu]

Practice prayer like this, and you will teach yourself (or is God teaching you?) to become the person that you ought to be.

Yes, God made it very clear in the Lord's Prayer based on scriptures from the Torah, what to pray for and what to hope for. The prime being that His will, not ours will be done in earth, and that what we should also hope for is that we are not tempted to allow our own will to self justify our actions, and that we are delivered from the evil which is the ability to do so that is within us.

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. Humility consists in not doing this. Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

Again a matter of defending our will over the will of God and the antidote.

A person should worship God.

Yes, His will, not our own. He has been saying this since the Garden.

It is when we are judging without a purpose that we should stop and reflect.

On whether we judge according to our own will or according to the will of God.

Worry is always in vain.

Yes, it is not putting trust in God's will.

because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

By not being who you are taught since birth to be by a world we have made in our own image..

 

[YorkieGal]

Judging is okay. That's how we teach others the will of God and lead them away from the sins of man.

Christians not judging is one of the most misinterpreted tenets of Christianity, IMO, followed by blasphemy.

I blame the Christian hating media which spouts Scripture, out of context, and we Christians who substitute church for TV and allow misinterpretation to go unexplored and unchallenged.

 

[Strong in Him]

Here are a collection of quotes from the Bible to back up my assertion that God only really cares about your heart:

He doesn't care only about our hearts.
Jesus healed many people - made their bodies whole.
He provided food for more than 5,000, then more than 4,000.
He provided a coin so he and Peter could pay their tax.
He calmed a storm.
He said that if God can clothe the lilies of the field, he can clothe us.

When have you ever heard of a Christian causing a literal mountain to jump into the sea? I have never heard of it. I believe the correct interpretation for everyday use is to think of the mountain as some obstacle inside the self

Not only inside the self.
Hundreds of Christians have done things, trusting that God would provide the money - e.g George Mueller built orphanages. People have prayed for jobs, for material things for others, for healing etc.

Likewise, for the mustard seed growing into a great tree. It takes time to grow into a new person, but even the tiniest start can be enough.

And it takes time for a church to grow, for plans to be realised, for a God given venture to take off.

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." -- In the spirit of the other interpretations, it seems reasonable to think of snakes as malicious people, and the poison as hurtful deceit.

Maybe. But there have also been testimonies of people being delivered from literal snakes - think, Paul on the island of Malta (Acts 28.)

If you are not convinced yet,

I am far from convinced that God cares only about our heart/spirit/inner life.
He healed me from a physical illness, for a start.

Yes, we can't go too far the other way and say that God's main concern is for us to be healthy, employed, have money and good things etc etc.
Our hearts and souls are important to him; of course they are. That we accept his Son and be reconciled to him is of primary importance - more so than health, money and possessions.
But God cares about our bodies, circumstances and anything that may be preventing us from hearing the Gospel, too. To say otherwise, sounds dangerously close to Gnosticism - which teaches that the body is evil and only the spirit matters.
The early church had to fight against this false teaching.

I would assume that all sincere Christians have done this.

I wouldn't.
Unless they believe that they can add "in Jesus' name" onto the end of a prayer and God will give them anything. Then, they might be disappointed.
But Christians have prayed, and do pray, for jobs, spouses, children, houses (or guidance about which house to buy) and received.

Ask, "What can I do better?" and an answer will be given. I have been doing this for years, and there is not a single instance in which my prayer has not been answered.

Prayers are always answered not everyone accepts that "wait" or "no" are answers.

God will not necessarily wave a magic wand to make you smarter or richer or to have more opportunities than you have.

God doesn't "wave a magic wand" at all. But he does provide for his children, and he can do miracles.

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better.

No.
Some pride is wrong. But we are allowed to be proud of a job well done, proud of children/family etc.

Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

If God gives us certain gifts, asks us to use those gifts for him, gives us a job to do and we do it well, and we feel good about that - why is it wrong? If we achieve something that we never thought we would, we learn that when God calls he always provides and we feel happy to have achieved something or learnt something more about God, why is that wrong?

Considering that there are many passages in the Bible where "days" refer to indeterminant periods of time, I believe a good modern translation for this passage would be, "Do not worry about those things in the future which may or may not happen. There is always enough trouble in the present."

But there are also passages where "day" means "day".
Jesus told us to pray "give us, this day, our daily bread. Jesus, and James, tell us not to worry about tomorrow; each day has enough trouble of its own.

You may not have heard anyone say before that when Jesus said that you could move mountains, he meant that you could move yourself.

Possibly because it's not entirely correct.
If I believed I could move, affect, only my self and nothing else, I wouldn't pray for world peace, that others are healed of their illnesses, that certain groups of people make the right decision or do what is best in a particular situation.

The early church prayed for Peter to be released from prison. He didn't move himself, nor was he given peace to come to terms with his imprisonment - he was released.

But I think this is the only way of interpreting it without history making Jesus into a liar. There are no moving mountains.

The "mountain" might be someone else's stubborn attitude or refusal to grant something. It doesn't have to be a literal mountain.
The phrase "making a mountain out of a mole hill" is not literally possible - or at least, not from our perspective. We can't take the small amount of earth that a mole digs us and make it into a mountain which is too big for us to climb. (It might be a molehill to an ant, but that's not the same.)
The phrase means that someone has taken something small and built it into something much bigger - they are asked to see the boss, for example, worry that they are going to lose their job and become penniless. Or they have a headache and assume it is the start of a brain tumour.

If the psychological interpretation is true, however, that's good news for you, because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

Then again, we could have faith that God is able to move the mountain.

We can become the people God made us to be - with his help and his Spirit who is transforming us into Jesus' likeness.
We are not meant to look inside ourselves and do it our way.

 

[BrendanG]

He doesn't care only about our hearts.
Jesus healed many people - made their bodies whole.
He provided food for more than 5,000, then more than 4,000.
He provided a coin so he and Peter could pay their tax.
He calmed a storm.
He said that if God can clothe the lilies of the field, he can clothe us.

Not only inside the self.
Hundreds of Christians have done things, trusting that God would provide the money - e.g George Mueller built orphanages. People have prayed for jobs, for material things for others, for healing etc.


And it takes time for a church to grow, for plans to be realised, for a God given venture to take off.


Maybe. But there have also been testimonies of people being delivered from literal snakes - think, Paul on the island of Malta (Acts 28.)

I am far from convinced that God cares only about our heart/spirit/inner life.
He healed me from a physical illness, for a start.

Yes, we can't go too far the other way and say that God's main concern is for us to be healthy, employed, have money and good things etc etc.
Our hearts and souls are important to him; of course they are. That we accept his Son and be reconciled to him is of primary importance - more so than health, money and possessions.
But God cares about our bodies, circumstances and anything that may be preventing us from hearing the Gospel, too. To say otherwise, sounds dangerously close to Gnosticism - which teaches that the body is evil and only the spirit matters.
The early church had to fight against this false teaching.

I wouldn't.
Unless they believe that they can add "in Jesus' name" onto the end of a prayer and God will give them anything. Then, they might be disappointed.
But Christians have prayed, and do pray, for jobs, spouses, children, houses (or guidance about which house to buy) and received.

Prayers are always answered not everyone accepts that "wait" or "no" are answers.


God doesn't "wave a magic wand" at all. But he does provide for his children, and he can do miracles.


No.
Some pride is wrong. But we are allowed to be proud of a job well done, proud of children/family etc.


If God gives us certain gifts, asks us to use those gifts for him, gives us a job to do and we do it well, and we feel good about that - why is it wrong? If we achieve something that we never thought we would, we learn that when God calls he always provides and we feel happy to have achieved something or learnt something more about God, why is that wrong?

But there are also passages where "day" means "day".
Jesus told us to pray "give us, this day, our daily bread. Jesus, and James, tell us not to worry about tomorrow; each day has enough trouble of its own.


Possibly because it's not entirely correct.
If I believed I could move, affect, only my self and nothing else, I wouldn't pray for world peace, that others are healed of their illnesses, that certain groups of people make the right decision or do what is best in a particular situation.

The early church prayed for Peter to be released from prison. He didn't move himself, nor was he given peace to come to terms with his imprisonment - he was released.

The "mountain" might be someone else's stubborn attitude or refusal to grant something. It doesn't have to be a literal mountain.
The phrase "making a mountain out of a mole hill" is not literally possible - or at least, not from our perspective. We can't take the small amount of earth that a mole digs us and make it into a mountain which is too big for us to climb. (It might be a molehill to an ant, but that's not the same.)
The phrase means that someone has taken something small and built it into something much bigger - they are asked to see the boss, for example, worry that they are going to lose their job and become penniless. Or they have a headache and assume it is the start of a brain tumour.

Then again, we could have faith that God is able to move the mountain.

We can become the people God made us to be - with his help and his Spirit who is transforming us into Jesus' likeness.
We are not meant to look inside ourselves and do it our way.

I don't really disagree with a lot of what you said. My word choice maybe wasn't the best in a couple places, but I wasn't trying to argue that God NEVER interferes in the material world. But I still think he is primarily concerned with the heart. If God is omnipotent, I'd presume that the material world already looks more-or-less like what he wants it to look like. Or if he wants it to look different, he wants us to try fix it with whatever powers we already have.

I know for me personally, material prayers are basically never answered, or are only answered on a hit-or-miss basis. However, whenever I pray to have a better attitude or a cleaner heart or something like that, a way forward ALWAYS appears very soon.

The fact that Jesus healed people while he was here on Earth, but doesn't regularly heal whoever prays today the same as he healed whoever approached him on Earth 2000 years ago, makes me think that he was showing us by example how he wants us to act as humans. The fact that he did those things miraculously was a sign that he was God. He doesn't seem to be concerned with fixing all the material problems on Earth himself, however.

About "day": it seems kind of ridiculous to interpret it literally in this passage. In that case, you may have rent due tomorrow, but not bother to pay today because you shouldn't worry about tomorrow. That makes no sense to me. Humans have to plan more than 1 day in advance in order to live. It would make more sense that "day" means "present" and "tomorrow" means "unknown future"


I should have mentioned when I first posted that my spiritual journey really kicked-off after reading "Unseen Warfare" and "The Ladder of Divine Ascent". Most of the ancient tradition, as described in these books, is actually concerned with "inner work". So what I'm saying here is not inconsistent with tradition. I've read many old stories about saints, and many of the saints just minded their own business in a desert or hut. One saint, for instance, did very little else apart from praying to God, "enlighten my darkness". A holy shoemaker I remember just looked out the window while he was working and thought to himself about how everybody going by was better than him. External works are certainly not bad, but they are generally accessory to the inner work. It makes sense that God is not impressed by our outer work by itself, since God's omnipotent, and could do everything himself in the blink of an eye if he wanted. Since we have free will, the only thing that God can't just will to be the way he wants is our hearts.

 

[stevevw]

Jesus was primarily concerned with a person's inner life; in other words, how one felt and thought. Prayer, for instance, ought not to be concerned with asking God to change outward circumstances, but to change one's inner self. Most of Jesus' teachings are most useful when interpreted in a psychological manner. He is the best guide there ever was for navigating one's inner self.

Jesus is not a nanny who will take away all trouble and suffering in life and make things easy. God lets bad things happen to good people all the time; so evidently, his idea of good is different than what seems intuitively good to people. If you pray to God to change your heart, God will certainly grant your request, but you will probably find that if you ask him to make your material circumstances better, he often doesn't listen.


Here are a collection of quotes from the Bible to back up my assertion that God only really cares about your heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." -- Jesus is not asking you to perform a particular action. He is asking you to orient your heart.

"...those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defiled a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." -- It is not outward actions, but the heart which defiles a man

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." -- Get your inner self right, and your outer self will become right automatically

Here is a passage from the Gospel of Thomas. I realize it's not in the Bible cannon, but it's possible that early Christians read it before the cannon was standardized. It is in the same spirit regardless: "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you."

All the Beatitudes are focused of course on your heart (poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, etc)


Taken in the context of correct psychological orientation, many other passages may make more sense.
"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

When have you ever heard of a Christian causing a literal mountain to jump into the sea? I have never heard of it. I believe the correct interpretation for everyday use is to think of the mountain as some obstacle inside the self which blocks you from becoming the person you want to be. If you have even the tiniest bit of faith, you will be able to become the person that you ought to be. The mountain will move.

Likewise, for the mustard seed growing into a great tree. It takes time to grow into a new person, but even the tiniest start can be enough.

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." -- In the spirit of the other interpretations, it seems reasonable to think of snakes as malicious people, and the poison as hurtful deceit. A person with the right orientation can deal with vicious people and lies and not be inwardly harmed.


If you are not convinced yet, consider Jesus' promise: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." How many of you have asked for a material thing in faith, and not have it given to you? I would assume that all sincere Christians have done this. And yet we still lose our loved ones and our health and our jobs, and eventually we all die. So, is Jesus a liar?

I believe the resolution to this is that Jesus means for you to ask for your heart to be oriented properly. Ask, "What can I do better?" and an answer will be given. I have been doing this for years, and there is not a single instance in which my prayer has not been answered. It is for this reason that I believe this is the significance of Jesus' promise. It is not a promise to change your external circumstances, but a promise to help you change yourself. If you interpret his promise to be oriented towards material things, then common experience makes Jesus into a liar. But if you interpret it to mean that he will help you be like him, you will find that he keeps his promises.

If you are in a situation like Job, where you are suffering and don't know why, it's possible that all that's expected of you is to suffer patiently. But you should still ask and see if you get an answer.


Jordan Peterson gave a very good interpretation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He said it means that you should first am at the highest thing that you can possibly imagine, and then act in the moment in what way you can to make it happen. If you do this, all of your material needs will sort themselves out of their own accord in the best possible way. This is a promise, and it is one that you can test. I encourage everyone to test it.


How to Pray?

I've read several books on prayer, both from an Orthodox, and from a Protestant perspective. I always came to the conclusion that I cannot tell the difference between my own voice and God's voice. It caused me a great deal of frustration.

The frustration ended when I realized that whether another voice comes from another human's throat, or my own mind, or from God, I can't force any of these voices to speak to me. I can only be ready to listen when they speak. I cannot be responsible for making God talk to me. It is impossible. I can only be responsible for listening.

So here is how you pray: it is fine to ask for things, or to struggle with a problem and just try to articulate what is going on in your head. The important part is to listen to what happens next. The answer could come from another person's mouth, or from an event, or a thought that appears in your head. Did the answer come from God, or your own thoughts, or from accidental circumstance? Who knows? But the answer will come. If you ask in sincerity to become a better version of yourself, an answer will come. It is like a law of nature. I have so much experience with this, if you say that you have done this and it didn't work, it will sound to me like you jumped off a building and did not fall. Often the answer is immediate, but sometimes it takes time. But I have no experience with unanswered prayers of this sort.

God will not necessarily wave a magic wand to make you smarter or richer or to have more opportunities than you have. But if you ask in sincerity what you can do in your actual circumstances to be better inside your heart, and you listen, an answer will come.

Practice prayer like this, and you will teach yourself (or is God teaching you?) to become the person that you ought to be.


Some more psychological wisdom:

I thought when I was younger about the actual meaning of things like pride, and worship, and sin. I came to these answers:

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. Humility consists in not doing this. Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

I personally believe that the only 2 valid reasons to feel good are 1. self-congratulation for good effort and 2. gratitude for stuff outside of our control. This is because our effort is the only thing that we truly have control over. No one else made us try. So, congratulate yourself for trying. It also seems to me that if you feel good for having genuinely done good, then you will want to do it again, and that is good. But nothing else is truly within our power to bring about, so, we must acknowledge it and be grateful for it. Even breathing, is in the end, outside of our control. In the end, we will all suffer some kind of accident or sickness which will take our breath away, no matter how much we will it otherwise.

Worship consists in recognizing something as a source of value. Everyone worships something, or else his life would seem meaningless and pointless and he would not do anything. A person should worship God. From our limited understanding, God in our minds is whatever we imagine the best and the highest to be. Do not worship anything less than what you can recognize as the best.

Sin is when our actual values to not align with our stated values. For a Christian, his stated values are God's values. But everyone who has a moral ideal has an idea of sin (where he has fallen short of his ideal), even if he isn't aware of it. Your actions show off your real values. This is how it is possible for one's stated values to be different from one's actual values. I believe God only really judges you on your values.

This also explains the faith/works dichotomy. Your actions come from your beliefs. And you assign your beliefs by acting. You are saved by faith, but works will come automatically from your faith, according to your understanding and your strength.


Here is some more psychological wisdom from Jesus:

Judgment -- "How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I was confused as a child when I read this, because the implication seems to be that if you are judging someone, that you are necessarily a hypocrite. But how can it always be that everyone who judges is always a hypocrite? Eventually, I had the realization that when I felt the emotional need to judge somebody else, it was a way of distracting from my own insecurity. I believe I can see the same tendency in other people. If you see something wrong in another person, and it truly doesn't affect you, then why be concerned with it? If you are concerned with it, that is a very good sign that you see something of yourself in that person, and that is why you hate it so much.

I do not think this applies to situations where we have to make a decision. You have to decide, for instance, "Should I work for this person?" "Should I trust this person?" "Should I marry this person?" I do not think these kinds of judgments are necessarily sinful. It is impossible to live without them. It is when we are judging without a purpose that we should stop and reflect.

Worry -- "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Considering that there are many passages in the Bible where "days" refer to indeterminant periods of time, I believe a good modern translation for this passage would be, "Do not worry about those things in the future which may or may not happen. There is always enough trouble in the present."

Worry is always in vain. If we knew how to solve a problem, we would do it. When we do not know how to solve a problem, but concern ourselves with it incessantly, that is worry. But if you cannot stop evil from coming, why worry? Your hair will turn gray with or without your worry.


There are many other things that could be said, but you will have to go on your own journey.




You may not have heard anyone say before that when Jesus said that you could move mountains, he meant that you could move yourself. But I think this is the only way of interpreting it without history making Jesus into a liar. There are no moving mountains. If the psychological interpretation is true, however, that's good news for you, because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

I agree that there is a lot of good psychological sense behind Christs teachings. I remember one example Jordan Peterson mentioned was in 'turning the other cheek'. Not to be a coward or submissive but in love.

This is very relevant to the many conflicts we see today from personal one on one situations to nation against nation. We can continue to seek revenge but at some point someone has to change this mentality so that it breaks the cycle of revenge and hate.

It can be very powerful psychologically as it places the onus on each person to think before they act and see the bigger picture of what the conflict is really all about. That change can only come from changing self first rather than expecting the enermy to change to accommodate your demands.

I agree that the change starts with self. Peterson also mentions this. Theres no sense in wanting to save the world when you cannot conquer yourself. Start with simple things like cleaning up your room. Get yourself in order and then you may begin to fix your relationships with family and friends and then you can go out into the world and help others.

Even the idea of loving your enermies and helping people not just with what is expected but even beyond that. I believe there is good psychological reasons for this. It cultivates a mind set that can have powerful influence on others and self. Its a form of reverse pssychology that goes beyond what we could fully understand and rationalise.

That is why I think the two greatest commandments were to love God as Jesus knew that humans have a tendency to make gods and idols to worship and that whatever gods we worshipped would dictate our hearts. Loving others as we love oursleves also covers all the moral laws as they all have to do with how we engage with others. Love covers a multitude of sins.

 

[timothyu]

Love covers a multitude of sins.

Yes, simply because love is an outward expression (helpful and not damaging) rather than focused on self, self being the cause of all the world's woes.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

He doesn't care only about our hearts.
Jesus healed many people - made their bodies whole.
He provided food for more than 5,000, then more than 4,000.
He provided a coin so he and Peter could pay their tax.
He calmed a storm.
He said that if God can clothe the lilies of the field, he can clothe us.

In all the cases we read about in Scripture, the person or people who are the subject of the story,
were transformed. What we read little about is how others who saw the same thing were not
converted and remained skeptical or in denial.

The same thing happens today. When you yourself witness a miracle, as I did, many people present
will not see it, while others, see it and have a transformation of heart.

The meaning of the word, "repent," is to have a change of heart. So, a person who experiences
a miracle takes it to heart which transforms them.

Faith is a gift, it is God's revelation to the individual, however that may happen.

 

[Strong in Him]

In all the cases we read about in Scripture, the person or people who are the subject of the story,
were transformed. What we read little about is how others who saw the same thing were not
converted and remained skeptical or in denial.

The same thing happens today. When you yourself witness a miracle, as I did, many people present
will not see it, while others, see it and have a transformation of heart.

The meaning of the word, "repent," is to have a change of heart. So, a person who experiences
a miracle takes it to heart which transforms them.

Faith is a gift, it is God's revelation to the individual, however that may happen.

I know.

My point was that God does care about our health and our everyday lives too - not just our hearts and souls.

 

[Stephen3141]

Jesus was primarily concerned with a person's inner life; in other words, how one felt and thought. Prayer, for instance, ought not to be concerned with asking God to change outward circumstances, but to change one's inner self. Most of Jesus' teachings are most useful when interpreted in a psychological manner. He is the best guide there ever was for navigating one's inner self.

Jesus is not a nanny who will take away all trouble and suffering in life and make things easy. God lets bad things happen to good people all the time; so evidently, his idea of good is different than what seems intuitively good to people. If you pray to God to change your heart, God will certainly grant your request, but you will probably find that if you ask him to make your material circumstances better, he often doesn't listen.


Here are a collection of quotes from the Bible to back up my assertion that God only really cares about your heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." -- Jesus is not asking you to perform a particular action. He is asking you to orient your heart.

"...those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defiled a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." -- It is not outward actions, but the heart which defiles a man

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." -- Get your inner self right, and your outer self will become right automatically

Here is a passage from the Gospel of Thomas. I realize it's not in the Bible cannon, but it's possible that early Christians read it before the cannon was standardized. It is in the same spirit regardless: "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you."

All the Beatitudes are focused of course on your heart (poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, etc)


Taken in the context of correct psychological orientation, many other passages may make more sense.
"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

When have you ever heard of a Christian causing a literal mountain to jump into the sea? I have never heard of it. I believe the correct interpretation for everyday use is to think of the mountain as some obstacle inside the self which blocks you from becoming the person you want to be. If you have even the tiniest bit of faith, you will be able to become the person that you ought to be. The mountain will move.

Likewise, for the mustard seed growing into a great tree. It takes time to grow into a new person, but even the tiniest start can be enough.

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." -- In the spirit of the other interpretations, it seems reasonable to think of snakes as malicious people, and the poison as hurtful deceit. A person with the right orientation can deal with vicious people and lies and not be inwardly harmed.


If you are not convinced yet, consider Jesus' promise: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." How many of you have asked for a material thing in faith, and not have it given to you? I would assume that all sincere Christians have done this. And yet we still lose our loved ones and our health and our jobs, and eventually we all die. So, is Jesus a liar?

I believe the resolution to this is that Jesus means for you to ask for your heart to be oriented properly. Ask, "What can I do better?" and an answer will be given. I have been doing this for years, and there is not a single instance in which my prayer has not been answered. It is for this reason that I believe this is the significance of Jesus' promise. It is not a promise to change your external circumstances, but a promise to help you change yourself. If you interpret his promise to be oriented towards material things, then common experience makes Jesus into a liar. But if you interpret it to mean that he will help you be like him, you will find that he keeps his promises.

If you are in a situation like Job, where you are suffering and don't know why, it's possible that all that's expected of you is to suffer patiently. But you should still ask and see if you get an answer.


Jordan Peterson gave a very good interpretation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He said it means that you should first am at the highest thing that you can possibly imagine, and then act in the moment in what way you can to make it happen. If you do this, all of your material needs will sort themselves out of their own accord in the best possible way. This is a promise, and it is one that you can test. I encourage everyone to test it.


How to Pray?

I've read several books on prayer, both from an Orthodox, and from a Protestant perspective. I always came to the conclusion that I cannot tell the difference between my own voice and God's voice. It caused me a great deal of frustration.

The frustration ended when I realized that whether another voice comes from another human's throat, or my own mind, or from God, I can't force any of these voices to speak to me. I can only be ready to listen when they speak. I cannot be responsible for making God talk to me. It is impossible. I can only be responsible for listening.

So here is how you pray: it is fine to ask for things, or to struggle with a problem and just try to articulate what is going on in your head. The important part is to listen to what happens next. The answer could come from another person's mouth, or from an event, or a thought that appears in your head. Did the answer come from God, or your own thoughts, or from accidental circumstance? Who knows? But the answer will come. If you ask in sincerity to become a better version of yourself, an answer will come. It is like a law of nature. I have so much experience with this, if you say that you have done this and it didn't work, it will sound to me like you jumped off a building and did not fall. Often the answer is immediate, but sometimes it takes time. But I have no experience with unanswered prayers of this sort.

God will not necessarily wave a magic wand to make you smarter or richer or to have more opportunities than you have. But if you ask in sincerity what you can do in your actual circumstances to be better inside your heart, and you listen, an answer will come.

Practice prayer like this, and you will teach yourself (or is God teaching you?) to become the person that you ought to be.


Some more psychological wisdom:

I thought when I was younger about the actual meaning of things like pride, and worship, and sin. I came to these answers:

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. Humility consists in not doing this. Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

I personally believe that the only 2 valid reasons to feel good are 1. self-congratulation for good effort and 2. gratitude for stuff outside of our control. This is because our effort is the only thing that we truly have control over. No one else made us try. So, congratulate yourself for trying. It also seems to me that if you feel good for having genuinely done good, then you will want to do it again, and that is good. But nothing else is truly within our power to bring about, so, we must acknowledge it and be grateful for it. Even breathing, is in the end, outside of our control. In the end, we will all suffer some kind of accident or sickness which will take our breath away, no matter how much we will it otherwise.

Worship consists in recognizing something as a source of value. Everyone worships something, or else his life would seem meaningless and pointless and he would not do anything. A person should worship God. From our limited understanding, God in our minds is whatever we imagine the best and the highest to be. Do not worship anything less than what you can recognize as the best.

Sin is when our actual values to not align with our stated values. For a Christian, his stated values are God's values. But everyone who has a moral ideal has an idea of sin (where he has fallen short of his ideal), even if he isn't aware of it. Your actions show off your real values. This is how it is possible for one's stated values to be different from one's actual values. I believe God only really judges you on your values.

This also explains the faith/works dichotomy. Your actions come from your beliefs. And you assign your beliefs by acting. You are saved by faith, but works will come automatically from your faith, according to your understanding and your strength.


Here is some more psychological wisdom from Jesus:

Judgment -- "How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I was confused as a child when I read this, because the implication seems to be that if you are judging someone, that you are necessarily a hypocrite. But how can it always be that everyone who judges is always a hypocrite? Eventually, I had the realization that when I felt the emotional need to judge somebody else, it was a way of distracting from my own insecurity. I believe I can see the same tendency in other people. If you see something wrong in another person, and it truly doesn't affect you, then why be concerned with it? If you are concerned with it, that is a very good sign that you see something of yourself in that person, and that is why you hate it so much.

I do not think this applies to situations where we have to make a decision. You have to decide, for instance, "Should I work for this person?" "Should I trust this person?" "Should I marry this person?" I do not think these kinds of judgments are necessarily sinful. It is impossible to live without them. It is when we are judging without a purpose that we should stop and reflect.

Worry -- "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Considering that there are many passages in the Bible where "days" refer to indeterminant periods of time, I believe a good modern translation for this passage would be, "Do not worry about those things in the future which may or may not happen. There is always enough trouble in the present."

Worry is always in vain. If we knew how to solve a problem, we would do it. When we do not know how to solve a problem, but concern ourselves with it incessantly, that is worry. But if you cannot stop evil from coming, why worry? Your hair will turn gray with or without your worry.


There are many other things that could be said, but you will have to go on your own journey.




You may not have heard anyone say before that when Jesus said that you could move mountains, he meant that you could move yourself. But I think this is the only way of interpreting it without history making Jesus into a liar. There are no moving mountains. If the psychological interpretation is true, however, that's good news for you, because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

????

Jesus' teaching was aimed at the "inner" person????

Although it is very clear that the biblical authors believe that human beings are more than just a physical body,
it is also VERY clear that the final judgment will be based on the actions that we choose to live out,
in our physical body.

You are trying to deny the physical part of a human being, and trying to make Christianity into a
merely "spiritual" exercise. This is not Christian.

 

[Strong in Him]

I don't really disagree with a lot of what you said. My word choice maybe wasn't the best in a couple places, but I wasn't trying to argue that God NEVER interferes in the material world. But I still think he is primarily concerned with the heart.

He is concerned with our souls, our hearts and our salvation, yes - and maybe even more concerned with these than with our physical well-being. For example I have seen some Christians write about how God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and problem free; no, he wants us to know, love and have faith in him.

I may have read your post wrongly, but it sounded as though you were saying God is ONLY concerned about these things, and not about our health, the jobs we do etc.

If God is omnipotent, I'd presume that the material world already looks more-or-less like what he wants it to look like.

No, the world is sinful and there is injustice, poverty and war. God did not plan it to be like this.

I know for me personally, material prayers are basically never answered, or are only answered on a hit-or-miss basis.

I believe that prayer is always answered, but we don't recognise that "no" and "wait" are answers too. Most people, when they talk about answered prayer mean "I got what I prayed for/the situation turned out positively." If they/we don't get that, they/we say that our prayers have not been answered.

I prayed to be delivered from M.E. It was 18 years before that happened - but in that time I discovered lots of things and would say, now, that my prayers while answered while I still had the symptoms of M.E.

However, whenever I pray to have a better attitude or a cleaner heart or something like that, a way forward ALWAYS appears very soon.

It is quite true that God doesn't always change the situation, he sometimes changes US or how we view the situation.
That, to me, is an example of a prayer being answered in a way that we don't expect.

The fact that Jesus healed people while he was here on Earth, but doesn't regularly heal whoever prays today the same as he healed whoever approached him on Earth 2000 years ago, makes me think that he was showing us by example how he wants us to act as humans. The fact that he did those things miraculously was a sign that he was God. He doesn't seem to be concerned with fixing all the material problems on Earth himself, however.

To some extent, I would agree with that.
He does work miracles today - people are healed, protected, given the resources that they need. But it's also true that God might want us to be the answer to our own prayers. If we ask him what he is doing about the homelessness in out town, for example, we might find that he is asking us the same thing. He gives us the privilege of serving him and gives us all we need to meet a need.

I should have mentioned when I first posted that my spiritual journey really kicked-off after reading "Unseen Warfare" and "The Ladder of Divine Ascent". Most of the ancient tradition, as described in these books, is actually concerned with "inner work". So what I'm saying here is not inconsistent with tradition.

No, and I would agree that our hearts, our faith and inner lives are very important.
It just sounded, to me, as though you were saying that God doesn't care about anything else. He cares for ALL his creation and all of our lives.

 

[dzheremi]

Jesus also said many things that made it obvious that we are to also concern ourselves with 'non-internal', 'non-psychological' things, most fittingly "These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone" (emphasis mine), when addressing the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 concerning their habit of placing tithing above weightier matters of the law (justice, mercy, and faith). So He wants us to focus on both the internal and the external, not to neglect one in favor of the other. No matter who says what about it, the Christian faith does involve doing things. It's not a primarily intellectual pursuit.

 

[BrendanG]

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." -- Get your inner self right, and your outer self will become right automatically

This thing that I wrote in my original post is my view on works. Works happen automatically if you are properly oriented. I did not have the attitude that works are altogether unimportant. I suppose it might sometimes be the case that starting to do good can help the heart be oriented properly too.

 

[darrellmoneyhon]

Jesus was primarily concerned with a person's inner life; in other words, how one felt and thought. Prayer, for instance, ought not to be concerned with asking God to change outward circumstances, but to change one's inner self. Most of Jesus' teachings are most useful when interpreted in a psychological manner. He is the best guide there ever was for navigating one's inner self.

Jesus is not a nanny who will take away all trouble and suffering in life and make things easy. God lets bad things happen to good people all the time; so evidently, his idea of good is different than what seems intuitively good to people. If you pray to God to change your heart, God will certainly grant your request, but you will probably find that if you ask him to make your material circumstances better, he often doesn't listen.


Here are a collection of quotes from the Bible to back up my assertion that God only really cares about your heart:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." -- Jesus is not asking you to perform a particular action. He is asking you to orient your heart.

"...those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defiled a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." -- It is not outward actions, but the heart which defiles a man

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." -- Get your inner self right, and your outer self will become right automatically

Here is a passage from the Gospel of Thomas. I realize it's not in the Bible cannon, but it's possible that early Christians read it before the cannon was standardized. It is in the same spirit regardless: "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you."

All the Beatitudes are focused of course on your heart (poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, etc)


Taken in the context of correct psychological orientation, many other passages may make more sense.
"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

When have you ever heard of a Christian causing a literal mountain to jump into the sea? I have never heard of it. I believe the correct interpretation for everyday use is to think of the mountain as some obstacle inside the self which blocks you from becoming the person you want to be. If you have even the tiniest bit of faith, you will be able to become the person that you ought to be. The mountain will move.

Likewise, for the mustard seed growing into a great tree. It takes time to grow into a new person, but even the tiniest start can be enough.

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." -- In the spirit of the other interpretations, it seems reasonable to think of snakes as malicious people, and the poison as hurtful deceit. A person with the right orientation can deal with vicious people and lies and not be inwardly harmed.


If you are not convinced yet, consider Jesus' promise: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." How many of you have asked for a material thing in faith, and not have it given to you? I would assume that all sincere Christians have done this. And yet we still lose our loved ones and our health and our jobs, and eventually we all die. So, is Jesus a liar?

I believe the resolution to this is that Jesus means for you to ask for your heart to be oriented properly. Ask, "What can I do better?" and an answer will be given. I have been doing this for years, and there is not a single instance in which my prayer has not been answered. It is for this reason that I believe this is the significance of Jesus' promise. It is not a promise to change your external circumstances, but a promise to help you change yourself. If you interpret his promise to be oriented towards material things, then common experience makes Jesus into a liar. But if you interpret it to mean that he will help you be like him, you will find that he keeps his promises.

If you are in a situation like Job, where you are suffering and don't know why, it's possible that all that's expected of you is to suffer patiently. But you should still ask and see if you get an answer.


Jordan Peterson gave a very good interpretation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He said it means that you should first am at the highest thing that you can possibly imagine, and then act in the moment in what way you can to make it happen. If you do this, all of your material needs will sort themselves out of their own accord in the best possible way. This is a promise, and it is one that you can test. I encourage everyone to test it.


How to Pray?

I've read several books on prayer, both from an Orthodox, and from a Protestant perspective. I always came to the conclusion that I cannot tell the difference between my own voice and God's voice. It caused me a great deal of frustration.

The frustration ended when I realized that whether another voice comes from another human's throat, or my own mind, or from God, I can't force any of these voices to speak to me. I can only be ready to listen when they speak. I cannot be responsible for making God talk to me. It is impossible. I can only be responsible for listening.

So here is how you pray: it is fine to ask for things, or to struggle with a problem and just try to articulate what is going on in your head. The important part is to listen to what happens next. The answer could come from another person's mouth, or from an event, or a thought that appears in your head. Did the answer come from God, or your own thoughts, or from accidental circumstance? Who knows? But the answer will come. If you ask in sincerity to become a better version of yourself, an answer will come. It is like a law of nature. I have so much experience with this, if you say that you have done this and it didn't work, it will sound to me like you jumped off a building and did not fall. Often the answer is immediate, but sometimes it takes time. But I have no experience with unanswered prayers of this sort.

God will not necessarily wave a magic wand to make you smarter or richer or to have more opportunities than you have. But if you ask in sincerity what you can do in your actual circumstances to be better inside your heart, and you listen, an answer will come.

Practice prayer like this, and you will teach yourself (or is God teaching you?) to become the person that you ought to be.


Some more psychological wisdom:

I thought when I was younger about the actual meaning of things like pride, and worship, and sin. I came to these answers:

Pride consists of lies that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. Humility consists in not doing this. Humility can be hard, because it involves not accepting good feelings that are based on falsehood.

I personally believe that the only 2 valid reasons to feel good are 1. self-congratulation for good effort and 2. gratitude for stuff outside of our control. This is because our effort is the only thing that we truly have control over. No one else made us try. So, congratulate yourself for trying. It also seems to me that if you feel good for having genuinely done good, then you will want to do it again, and that is good. But nothing else is truly within our power to bring about, so, we must acknowledge it and be grateful for it. Even breathing, is in the end, outside of our control. In the end, we will all suffer some kind of accident or sickness which will take our breath away, no matter how much we will it otherwise.

Worship consists in recognizing something as a source of value. Everyone worships something, or else his life would seem meaningless and pointless and he would not do anything. A person should worship God. From our limited understanding, God in our minds is whatever we imagine the best and the highest to be. Do not worship anything less than what you can recognize as the best.

Sin is when our actual values to not align with our stated values. For a Christian, his stated values are God's values. But everyone who has a moral ideal has an idea of sin (where he has fallen short of his ideal), even if he isn't aware of it. Your actions show off your real values. This is how it is possible for one's stated values to be different from one's actual values. I believe God only really judges you on your values.

This also explains the faith/works dichotomy. Your actions come from your beliefs. And you assign your beliefs by acting. You are saved by faith, but works will come automatically from your faith, according to your understanding and your strength.


Here is some more psychological wisdom from Jesus:

Judgment -- "How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I was confused as a child when I read this, because the implication seems to be that if you are judging someone, that you are necessarily a hypocrite. But how can it always be that everyone who judges is always a hypocrite? Eventually, I had the realization that when I felt the emotional need to judge somebody else, it was a way of distracting from my own insecurity. I believe I can see the same tendency in other people. If you see something wrong in another person, and it truly doesn't affect you, then why be concerned with it? If you are concerned with it, that is a very good sign that you see something of yourself in that person, and that is why you hate it so much.

I do not think this applies to situations where we have to make a decision. You have to decide, for instance, "Should I work for this person?" "Should I trust this person?" "Should I marry this person?" I do not think these kinds of judgments are necessarily sinful. It is impossible to live without them. It is when we are judging without a purpose that we should stop and reflect.

Worry -- "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Considering that there are many passages in the Bible where "days" refer to indeterminant periods of time, I believe a good modern translation for this passage would be, "Do not worry about those things in the future which may or may not happen. There is always enough trouble in the present."

Worry is always in vain. If we knew how to solve a problem, we would do it. When we do not know how to solve a problem, but concern ourselves with it incessantly, that is worry. But if you cannot stop evil from coming, why worry? Your hair will turn gray with or without your worry.


There are many other things that could be said, but you will have to go on your own journey.




You may not have heard anyone say before that when Jesus said that you could move mountains, he meant that you could move yourself. But I think this is the only way of interpreting it without history making Jesus into a liar. There are no moving mountains. If the psychological interpretation is true, however, that's good news for you, because you can test it yourself to see if you can become what you were meant to be.

Brendan,
I really liked this inner work focus. I believe that the “God” the founders of our religion discovered was Mind, rooted in philosophical “Idealism.” Mind as ultimate reality. If philosophical Idealism is correct, then inner work (working first with one’s own mind, little mind, in order to tap into Universal Mind, or “Mind Itself,” is the best path to working with reality, because all of reality is ultimately rooted in, based on, Mind.
That is a metaphysical justification of the psychological truths you attribute to Christ’s teachings. Not necessary, but supportive. Given this metaphysical view, “outside” is compatible with the “inside.”
Ken Wilber may not like this conflation of types of truths (“quadrants”) but it works for me. Puts psychology and spirituality together.