Unconscious Thought

Part 1

Jeremiah 17:10 NIV

"I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

What Do You Know About Yourself?

The past few weeks I have been aware of long and elaborate dreams that seem to last through the night.  In them are people I can’t ever remember seeing but they impact me in some dramatic way as my dream progresses.  The dreams aren’t frightening but sometimes they are troubling.  I have difficulty in many trying to find my way somewhere or I get confused about what I need to do.  The plotlines within my dreams are complex and the characters speak and act in surprising ways that don’t remind me of any of my recent experiences.  I could not write stories that are as creative and interesting as my dreams and so I wonder how they come about and what the source of them is.  Of course they could be sent to me by God or they may simply be the product of unconscious thinking that is working even while I am asleep.  One thing is certain.  There is much about me that I do not understand, especially what is found deep in my heart.

Perhaps you are like me and find yourself wondering what to make of the hidden parts of your mind.  It seems so complex and strange, like a cave filled with mysterious creatures, indecipherable writings and strange pictures on the walls.  Unpredictable forces are at work within you that push you about like a bully on the playground.  Do you just let them have their way with you, impacting what you feel about things and how you react to situations?  Can you do something about the internal forces that affect your life in hidden ways?  Should you be concerned about them or live as if your unconscious thoughts don’t matter?  What does the Bible have to say about the unconscious world?

Two terms in the Bible, when combined, are what describe the place of our “inner world”.  The first Hebrew term, lev, is generally translated heart and is what modern culture thinks of as the mind.  The second, Kilya is difficult to translate but in older English Bibles is called the “reins” or “kidneys”.  It is the inner place of the self; the deep part of us that includes our thinking, our unconscious world, our passion and our will.  Jeremiah 17: 10 puts both these terms together and reminds us that God has access to all the hidden places of the inner being.  "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." (Jeremiah 17:10 NIV)

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You don’t need proof that there are depths to you that you cannot explore with just the mental skills available to you.  You have dreams you can’t explain.  You experience emotions that do not have a recognizable source.  Memories suddenly pop to the surface without warning.  A smell or a taste of something brings back to mind an experience you have long forgotten.  The Bible says that God has made that deep, unseen world.  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (Psalm 139:13 NIV)  “Inmost being” is the translation of our Hebrew word, “Kilya” or kidneys, the place where your thoughts are found.  The very next verse proclaims that the way God put together your inmost being is wonderful.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14 NIV)  What Freud and many in the psychoanalytic field saw as the enemy of happiness, the unconscious world found in each person, the Bible says is a great benefit or even a tremendous treasure.

We do though face a great problem when it comes to our unconscious thought life.  It is corrupted.  Jeremiah 17:9 says this about the heart.  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)  The effect of Sin at every area of our thinking, both conscious as well as unconscious, is devastating.  It impacts us at every turn in life from how we feel about things to the way we make our decisions.  Our heart is wrecked and we cannot trust it to effectively take us through life.  No one, not Freud or Jung or Watson or any of the “thinkers” in the study of psychology understand fully the chaos found in the heart.

There is an interesting term the Bible uses to describe God’s plan for us.  Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6 NIV)  The word translated “truth” is the Hebrew word “emeth” and means firmness, reliability, faithfulness.  As the heart is now, you cannot count on it.  The thoughts that are generated by the heart are at best unreliable; at worst destructive.  You cannot count on what comes out of your heart and have confidence that what comes out of it will be good.  God’s plan for you is to make your heart trustworthy and the thoughts in it productive and beneficial to your being.  The only way that is possible is if God gets at the root of the problem, the Sin that corrupts the heart.

We are reminded in Jeremiah 17: 10, that only God is the great psychologist because He is capable of seeing into the deepest and most broken parts of the heart and knowing what to do about it.  "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind…”  The prayer of the Psalmist takes this ability of God into account.  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV)  Why is this important?   What does the psalmist really want?  We have no tools for figuring out the effect of our unconscious thinking upon what we do and how we react to things.  God though does and yet He will not simply take over your unconscious like some hypnotist if we don’t want Him there.  He waits for our praying to begin working in us at the unconscious level. 

Consider carefully God’s ability to do something about your unconscious mind.  Psalm 51: 6 insists, you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.  This is not just insight into how to fix a lawn mower.  You and I want much more than that in the inmost place, in the unconscious parts of the heart.  You want the supernatural thinking of God that combats the broken thinking of your unconscious mind.  "Where then does wisdom come from?  Where does understanding dwell? ... God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, (Job 28:20, 23 NIV)  With your permission, God will reshape and remake your unconscious mind so that His wisdom rises up out of it.

Consider the irony found in Isaiah 44. He (a carpenter) cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak.  He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.  It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.  But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.  Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.  He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire."  From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.  He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." (Isaiah 44: 14-17 NIV)  Of course this points out the ridiculous nature of idol construction!  With part of the wood the carpenter carves an idol and from the rest of the very same wood he builds a fire and warms his cold feet.  Your unconscious built within your heart is much like this.  Part of it generates lustful feelings.  “I want this and I want it now!”  It can incite bitter anger as well as deep depression.  Another part of the unconscious produces inspiring thoughts, actions and plans.  You might treat these ideas as if they come from God but they may not be from Him.  They may simply be a product of a corrupted unconscious.    The unconscious is the power behind many of our opinions, actions and creative ideas and tragically, you can treat them as the ruling force of your life, a god.  Some of the most horrifying people of history were ruled by an unconscious they neither understood nor could control.  They thought though that everything they did was good and right.  We too can be fooled by a heart that is not seen or understood.  Our unconscious is both a danger to us and a support.  Next week we shall look at what can be done to have an unconscious that works for us and not against us.

The Worthiness of Jesus...Heart

Psalm 73: 26 NIV

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What Is In Your Heart?

This past week our family on the 4^th of July went to the fireworks program put on by the city of Milpitas.  It was not a huge extravaganza but it was fun and a great way to end the holiday.  There is a football field that is used for seating that is first-come, first-served.  I got there early to get a spot for my family but was disappointed to discover that because we did not get our tickets in advance, I would have to wait in line for an hour to get our passes.  My knee had been bothering me a lot and so standing in line was not an ideal way for me to spend the afternoon.  Finally I was able to get my ticket and pick out a spot for our mat and then I began the long wait for my family to arrive.  Because I didn’t have a cell phone and there were lots of people crowding onto the field, I had to be vigilant for my family’s arrival.  Rather than relax and read a book, I was constantly scanning about to see if I could spot them.  Family after family arrived with their coolers, their cold drinks and their dinners.  Kids played with their parents, adults talked together and laughed and told stories and I sat by myself waiting…waiting…waiting.  Finally, two and a half hours later, my family arrived and because I hadn’t eaten much lunch, no breakfast and had been sitting out for so long in the warm sun, I was both famished and thirsty.  But when they arrived, all that was brought for me were chips!  Chips?  Others had barbecue, sandwiches and boxed dinners from restaurants and I was handed some chips.  Not only was I disappointed that I had to sit by myself for so long, I was bent out of shape by the lack of good food and drinks.  Now we would generally speak of my anger and frustration as cause related.  I was tired, perhaps feeling lonely and definitely thirsty and hungry.  The Bible however would describe it as a heart issue.

Have you ever gotten angry or depressed over something that others might call “no big deal”?  Perhaps you lost your cool over someone cutting you off on the road or a friend’s or co-worker’s insult.  Maybe you were so frustrated by your wife or your husband that you would not talk to him or her all evening.  Have you ever hurt someone’s feelings because she reminds you of someone that treated you badly in the past?  Do you let yourself get depressed when things don’t go as you planned?  Have you fallen for someone that didn’t really like you because you were lonely and desperate to be loved?  Do emotions ever spring up within you that don’t seem justified?  Are you surprised by how badly you react to circumstances that later don’t seem so bad?

There is much about us that we can’t give a rational explanation.  It makes for good TV to make some people out to be like robots but none of us are.  We are complicated and the root of nearly all of our senseless reactions is found in what the Bible calls “the heart”.  Our modern view of the heart is different than how the Bible uses the term “heart”.  Just a few passages from the Psalms will illustrate this.  No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. (Psalm 58:2 NIV) If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; (Psalm 66:18 NIV) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 NIV) My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. (Psalm 131:1 NIV) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV)

When the Bible talks about the heart, it is referring to what we commonly speak of as the mind.  But it really is more than just the mind, the heart as the Bible uses the term, is the very core of our personality, who we are and what we shall be forever as people. Within our heart we process our experiences, decide what we will do or not do, settle on our relationship with God and take in from God His attributes and spiritual gifts.  Joy comes to the heart as does sorrow and wisdom.  The heart is bigger than our minds can comprehend and within the heart is far more than we realize.  The body may die but the heart continues to live for it is who we are eternally.

The Bible speaks of the heart of Jesus a few times.  Christ says of Himself, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29 NIV)  This revelation of Jesus that He is gentle and humble in heart should make us pause and consider exactly the ramifications for us.  The God who created the universe is gentle and humble in heart.  He does not lord over us His power and although this world is tough and often full of pain, He is gentle.  We must always take this into account when we think of God and what we face.  His heart is gentle.  His heart is humble.  We also need to acknowledge that the heart of Jesus is compassionate.  In the small town of Nain as Jesus was walking and teaching, he noticed a funeral procession.  A widow’s only son had died and a large crowd was mourning with her.  Gazing at the poor widow, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry." (Luke 7:13 NIV)  Jesus then walked over to the casket and raised the son from the dead and restored him to his mom.  Later on, during the week that Jesus was betrayed, He admitted that His heart was in turmoil over what He faced at the end of the week.  "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?  'Father, save me from this hour'?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!" (John 12:27 NIV)

There is one more characteristic of Jesus’ heart that is critical to note. His heart is without sin.  There is not a hint of corruption to it, cruelty, bitterness, worry, or hatred for people.  He is called in the Bible a high priest who understands all the pain and sorrow we face and realizes in His heart how difficult it is to do what is right.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV)  In contrast, our hearts are thoroughly warped and distorted by sin and they generate all sorts of shocking behaviors.  Jesus, who understood human psychology better than anyone ever, has asserted, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:19 NIV) We like to insist that we would never do certain bad things others do and have done yet in this vast ocean of human personality called the heart is all that is needed for murder, slander, sexual immorality and theft to immerge.  There is a depth of evil in our hearts we cannot calculate but God knows exactly what is there.  As the prophet Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord put it, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV)The misperception of many is that the heart is basically good but that is not the case.  Our Lord says it is tremendously wicked and warped and there is a monumental amount of evil each heart, yours and mine, can produce.

Although we are clear on how Jesus forgave our sins by dying on the Cross, the overlooked aspect of what Jesus Christ accomplished at the Cross is His work to recreate us so that we can live happily without sin.  Perhaps the most profound couple of statements ever made on the psychology of the human condition brought about through the death of Christ on the Cross are found in Romans 5.  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:1-5 NIV)

Peace with God is not possible given the condition of our hearts.  We are irrational and uncontrollable with the heart each of us has.  Hatred and worry and lust and selfishness are always possible with us.  But something rarely ever discussed occurred when Jesus Christ died for us and in faith we gained God’s grace.  Part of that grace, perhaps the biggest part of that grace is not just that our sins are forgiven but that God has made it possible for us to have good and holy hearts.  How can that happen given what Christ has said about our hearts?  The miracle of the Cross also includes the amazing decision to pour into our hearts God’s own love.  The Holy Spirit does this and it changes the entire composition of our hearts.  They now have God’s love working out of them the corruption of Sin and making them good…good at the level of God’s goodness.  Another English translation says that God has “shed abroad” His love into our hearts which essentially means He floods our hearts with His own love, washing them of all the filth of collected Sin and hurt.  The Holy Spirit makes our hearts able to empower righteous and moral and loving actions that could not happen with God’s love not there.

Your heart though will be at war and you will never be at peace with God as part of it unless you give up your right to govern yourself.  The most miserable people in the world are those whose hearts are a battle ground between Sin and the love of God.    As soon as you let Christ take charge of your life, your heart will be at peace.  Jesus put it this way, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NIV)  A simple practice can make the peace of God a reality for you.  When lust pops up, say to the Lord, “I trust you with this lust.”  When anger boils within, say, “Lord, I trust you with this anger.”  When it is jealousy, “Lord I trust you with this jealousy.”  You are feeling sorry for yourself, “Lord I trust you with my disappointment.”  You feel bitter about mistreatment, “Lord, I trust you with my hurt feelings.”  The happiest and most contented people in the world can be Christians if we let our Lord have control of our hearts by trusting Him with our lives.