Psychological Matters

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. . ." Matthew 6:9-10 There are four principle driving forces we use to direct our daily lives. They are our emotional needs, our logic and reason, our personal willpower, and God's will. You may have noticed that I started this series with the one most commonly used to govern our lives---our emotional state. Few of us use our analytical reasoning, but even less of us utilize our willpower. The last driving force is the one we least employ: God's will. God's will, however, should be the primary direction for our lives since it provides us with a moral code and clarifies what is important. So, what is God's will for our lives? That is a huge question. There are many wonderful books written on this topic, but it can be simplified for the purposes of this article. According to Jesus, we are to love God with all our heart, soul, body, and mind, and to...

". . .he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone. . ." Matthew 14:23 Over the years I have met a few rare people who live mainly by their willpower. These individuals usually have done amazing things. I was particularly impressed by a 60-year-old man who regularly competed in triathlons. He explained that he daily ran several miles, biked a couple of hours, and regularly swam to prepare for the next race. This man was not prone to using his emotions as a driving force. I suspected he didn't ask himself if he felt like exercising on any given day. Reason also wasn't a driving force. I doubted he allowed distractions to interfere with his training schedule. He probably stayed extremely focused on the necessary preparations for the next race. To an outsider, he may have seemed irrational at times. It was only by his strong determination he was able to be successful. This man is an example of a person who lives his life by w...

Thought: "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." Galatians 5:13 Anything I have successfully done has been the result of using my willpower. It is amazing what I have accomplished when I set my mind to it. For years, I secretly longed to play violin. I finally decided to do something about it and started taking lessons five years ago. I have stuck with it, despite not being easy. Many days I feel too busy or tired to practice, yet I have been pleasantly surprised at the payoff of my persistence. Thirty minutes of practice five to seven times a week has allowed me to now play concertos by Vivaldi and Handel. God gave us a fantastic gift when he empowered us with willpower. Our will not only enables us to be self-determined, but it also gives our life purposefulness. It gives shape to each day. We can decide to clean the house or to leave it a mess. We can decide t...

Thought: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord." Isaiah 1:18a I recently watched a trailer advertising a reality television show. It showed a woman pleading with an airline ticket agent to get on an overbooked airplane. She demanded she be allowed on the plane since it was the last flight of the day. She said she hadn't seen her 6-year-old son for the past several months and had to get home immediately. Over and over again, she screamed and pounded her fists on the ticket countertop to be allowed on the overbooked flight. As the story unfolded, she confessed she had been in drug rehab for the past six months. She claimed she needed to be with her young son since he couldn't understand the reason for his mother's absence. Her tirade became so severe that eventually security officers were called to contain her. Then the video clip ended. At first I felt sorry for the woman. I imagined she was inadvertently separated from her young boy. Then, as mo...