Putting the Soul
back in Psychology!
What does it even mean when Jesus said...?
[Image by M Harris from Pixabay]
“Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 (Douay-Rheims)
"Whoever Saves His Life Will Lose It..."
...means, if we want to save and keep our daily life choices both interior and exterior that are the absence of Truth+Love+Virtues, we will lose having a loving, peaceful and joy filled daily life in this world and for eternity.
"Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me"
...following Jesus means to WANT and SEEK FROM JESUS and then try to imitate Him in practicing all that is Truth, Right, Good, Loving, and Virtuous, even if we subjectively believe it feels heavy and difficult and unpleasant at first to do so, which will be very temporary and will minimize the more Truth+Love+Virtues we receive.
Jesus carrying the cross and dying on the cross is Jesus choosing an act of Love+Virtues+Truth in response to all the ways we choose the absence of and reject Truth+Love+Virtues.
Therefore, "Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus" is nothing more than imitating Jesus Who IS Truth+Love+Virtues.
√ Wanting to know how we are wrong is...
...“taking up our cross and following Jesus”
√ Accepting the reality of what happens is...
...“taking up our cross and following Jesus"
√ Accepting when we cannot have our way is...
...“taking up our cross and following Jesus"
√ Asking Jesus for Truth about everything is...
...“taking up our cross and following Jesus”
√ Seeking Healing & Conversion of all our sins interior and exterior is...
...“taking up our cross and following Jesus”
We can practically "take up our cross and follow Jesus" by asking Jesus Christ, every time we are unhappy, what He wants us to learn, change, and do differently both interiorly and exteriorly in seeking His Truth+Love+Virtues in order for us to want to stop rejecting Truth+Love+Virtues, which is what is actually making us unhappy.
We also "take up our cross and follow Jesus" by being thankful for everything, including thankful for all we "think" is "bad" in working to want and accept all Truth and Reality, while focusing on the fact that everything that happens that we don't actually choose or is a result of our sequence of choices, is God's Will for our greater good.
We "take up our cross and follow Jesus" by directly offering up to God, everything we don't like and everything we do that is good, as a meritorious restitution for all the times we have rejected and failed to want Truth+Love+Virtues, in order to merit and be open to receiving even more Truth+Love+Virtues for ourselves, and to merit Truth+Love+Virtues for those who still don't yet want Truth+Love+Virtues.
We need to constantly throughout each day ask God to give us His Grace/Help, Truth, Love, and Virtues to have and want and know how to do Truth+Love+Virtues...
Jesus please show me how I am the absence of You; Truth+Love+Virtues? Aka, show me all my sins.
Jesus what do You want me to learn, change, and do differently? Aka, Show me Your Truth about everything.
Jesus I'm sorry for each and every thing I am and do both interiorly and exteriorly that is Not Truth+Love+Virtues.
We cannot want to or do anything good until we want Truth+Love+Virtues from God and we will not want God if we believe lies about suffering and lies about Who God is, including lies about Truth, lies about Love, and lies about Virtues.
Ask God daily to show you what lies you believe about Him and Who He really is, and lies you believe about Truth, Love, and Virtues, whether you think you believe any or not.
"The Cross"
...is every single time we are working to imitate and become like Jesus; Truth+Love+Virtues. “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”...not as humans think perfection should be.
The Cross is “Denying self” = “Dying to self” = “Dying to Sin” = "Emptying Oneself" = Stop believing lies and being unloving+unvirtuous, by all day every day seeking and learning Truth and how to be Loving and Virtuous from God. To do so, we need to learn how to recognize what is a sin daily: (absence of Truth+Love+Virtues)
1) "Holy Spirit show me what is a sin and all of my sins
interior and exterior."
2) Repent to God of each so Jesus can Heal them.
3) Ask Jesus for Truth+Love+Virtues to replace each of them.
4) Practice speaking Truth and being Loving+Virtuous both interiorly
and exteriorly
5) Expect to be imperfect, fail, and do this process again tomorrow.
Most of the time WE DON'T WANT TRUTH and TO BE LOVING+VIRTUOUS...and therein lies our REJECTION OF THE CROSS and JESUS CHRIST.
Us NOT wanting Truth+Love+Virtues from God in any detail...we are refusing to carry our "Cross"
Us NOT wanting the Truth on how to be Loving+Virtuous in any detail...we are refusing to carry our "Cross"
Us NOT wanting to suffer our deserved consequences, make up for our sins, or learn lessons of what is Truth+Love+Virtues at any time in any way...we are refusing to carry our "Cross"
Us NOT wanting to know and seeking every detail in how we are wrong and fail to have Truth, and fail to know how to be Loving+Virtuous...we are refusing to carry our "Cross"
Our own sinfulness in every detail, NOT the sinfulness of others...IS OUR REJECTION OF THE CROSS and JESUS CHRIST.
Our bad Psychological Emotions and Feelings, Addictions, Psychological Disorders, including Gender and Attraction Confusion, are NOT our "crosses"
to be taken up and carried while following Jesus Christ....because they are the ABSENCE of choosing to follow CHRIST.
Because they are the absence of having and being Truth+Love+Virtues they are the ABSENCE of Christ, which is why God wants to permanently heal them and He's just waiting for you to freely choose to want to learn how to cooperate with Him.
Do I believe the lies Modern Psychology and Psychiatry teach?...Ask Jesus to show you what lies you believe from Modern Psychology and Psychiatry, whether you think you believe any or not.
Do I believe that: bad emotions and psychological feelings, psychological disorders,
addictions (vices), and disordered attractions or gender confusion are not
related to sin?
Every time we feel: offended, bored, overwhelmed, embarrassed, shy, nervous, stressed, worried, afraid, scared, anxious, paranoid, phobic, distraught, emotionally hurt, upset, mad, angry, mift, bugged, annoyed, irritated, put-out, frustrated, pissed-off, enraged, furious, envious, jealous, lust (strong "physical" attraction), manic, depressed, despairing, hopeless, helpless, self-pity/feel sorry for ourselves, vengeful, resentment, hate for any person or what is good, disappointed, unmotivated, etc...we are refusing to carry our "Cross" and Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is sweet and My burden light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (Douay-Rheims)
"Take up my yoke upon you, and learn from Me"...
"My Yoke is Sweet and My Burden Light”
..."take my yoke upon you and learn from Me"...is just another way to say, "take up your cross and follow Me"...for "My yoke is sweet and My burden light" is WHY Jesus says "take up your cross and follow me"...for Jesus' "yoke", "burden", and learning from Him are "the cross", which He is explaining are "sweet" and "light". How can "carrying a cross" or "working a plow with a yoke on our shoulders" be sweet and light?
As we wrongly take analogies literally and we are a bunch of feelings blamers, we believe the LIE that "The Cross" and "Carrying Our Cross" means more suffering...when "The Cross" and "Carrying Our Cross" is actually less suffering !
Others sinning against us is NOT us "carry our cross"!
Others sinning is NOT what causes our emotional suffering!
We make ourselves emotionally suffer when WE sin because WE are refusing to "carry our cross" of wanting and trying to have Truth and be Loving and Virtuous!
TO CARRY OUR CROSS IS to have the Truth and be Loving and Virtuous, which DOES NOT CAUSE SUFFERING...having Truth+Love+Virtues MINIMIZES and PREVENTS SUFFERING!
If we don't experience this as reality, it's because WE DON'T WANT THE TRUTH, and FAIL TO HAVE THE TRUTH and DON'T WANT TO BE LOVING+VIRTUOUS and DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE LOVING+VIRTUOUS while WE THINK WE ALREADY ARE!
We only feel bad emotional suffering (verses virtuous) because we don't want Truth+Love+Virtues from God in some detail(s) and/or we are temporarily grieving the loss of our sinfulness (absence of Truth+Love+Virtues) that we have wanted and loved all this time up to now while Jesus is giving us His Truth+Love+Virtues, which are replacing our sinfulness.
To carry our cross is less suffering than sinning!
Carrying our cross minimizes and prevents bad emotions and psychological suffering!
Carrying our Cross IS "sweet and light" because it means less suffering!
If we who believe we are Christian and believe we are trying to follow Jesus Christ do not always think and feel like our life and what we are experiencing is “sweet and light” then...
We are NOT “taking up our cross and following Jesus”
We are NOT “taking Jesus’ yoke upon us and learning from Him”
We are NOT following and obeying God's Will
We are carrying our own sins (absence of Truth+Love+Virtues) and rejecting God
"Jesus please show me, How am I failing to take up my cross and follow You; how am I failing to take Your yoke upon me and learn from You?; Thank You."
"Jesus please show me, How am I failing to have Your Truth+Love+Virtues and failing to obey Your Will?; Thank You."
"Jesus please show me, What sin(s) am I carrying and how I'm rejecting You?; Thank You."
"Jesus please show me, How am I preventing my life and what I am experiencing is "sweet and light"?; Thank You."
If you still don't believe this is your problem or still don't want to Carry Your Cross and following Jesus Christ...don't worry you are normal...
Just tell Jesus daily: "Jesus I'm sorry I don't want to be sorry, that I don't want You; I don't want Your Truth+Love+Virtues, please heal me and fill me with Your Graces, Virtues, and Love to want to be sorry that I don't want You; Your Truth+Love+Virtues, and show me the Truth as to why I need to want You; Your Truth+Love+Virtues, Thank You Jesus for Your Healing, Love, and Truth!"