Psychology: Hoodwinked By The Devil

[Raymond]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently going through Psychology: Hoodwinked By The Devil and it's really opening my eyes to how I'd been sucked into using my understanding of various mental disorders to justify my sin. Very easy to do since all of us nurses are educated in psychology, and it just kind of becomes part of our thinking. I didn't realize that's what I was doing but Chris is once again dead on target. The more I read the more convicted I feel. Even though deep down knowing these things I do are wrong, and I've been trying repeatedly to stop these things, I keep falling back into them. This teaching is leaving me without excuses, and as much as its hurting now, praise God for that.

Guys please pray for me that the conviction deepens until I repent and am changed. I don't have any other sheep around that I can confess these things to. If I can do it in a PM or if I should be confessing openly in the forum I'm not sure. All I know is that I'm in the wrong and it can't continue.

Not sure what else to say.

[creationliberty]

I can pray for that, but God will know it will be without much passion because I don't know enough about your situation to know exactly what you're talking about or going through. I mean, your post was pretty vague if you'll look at it objectively. I suppose that I'm not sure what else to say because you were not sure what else to say.

[Raymond]

I guess that's why I was asking about confessing, whether it's appropriate to be done openly in the forum. I can't say I've ever confessed my sins one to another but I'm serious about this so if need be I'm willing put myself out there and be confident that God will use it for His purposes.

The isolation and alienation I've been dealing with ever since my divorce was magnified when I started nursing school two years ago. I dealt with it through marijuana use, alcohol use, smoking, watching porn, and overeating. I started a relationship with another student who professed to be Christian, and of course it became inappropriately physical. I knew all these things were wrong and so I spent a lot of time resisting them, eventually giving in to my flesh, knowing I was guilty of sinning yet again, and "try to do better" afterward. Some periods of resisting lasted longer than others, but the desire to temporarily escape my feelings of isolation make the quick fix of sin so easy to engage in.

So I graduated, school is over, that relationship is long ended, the isolation is still there, and the desire to escape it is still there. Recently my gluttony has ramped up, especially with fast food, which is ridiculous because my whole interest in nursing was based on my interest in nutrition and weight loss. I spend an embarrassing amount of time playing video games and on Facebook looking for some kind of connection with anyone. Generally I can hardly believe how selfish and slothful I'm being, but I tend to give myself a pass because I use my feelings as an excuse and justify it with my understanding of psychology. I keep trying to figure out how to "make no provision for the flesh". I keep going through Romans but I'm just not getting as much out of it as I was before school started.

I'm glad for Chris's psychology book. I've got a text to speech app reading it to me for now but I intend to go back through it slower and look up scripture references in context that time through. I'm currently in section 3 and he's completely correct about the DSM. I remember a Psych class I took years ago where the professor said that homosexuality used to be in it but was removed after it was "voted out". At that point I asked if that decision was based in research and he very clearly replied no, further explaining the process just like Chris did.

But chapter 3 is where the conviction really started to weigh on me. Whatever justification psychology would allow me to make is nonsense when the sin behind it is made plain. It's really embarrassing to see how far off I've been and frustrating that I didn't see it before. What kind of salt or light am I now anyhow? I feel like such an idiot and I'm totally incapable of fixing this myself. So thank God for the conviction and sorrow that the truth is bringing.

[Jackie]

Raymond, I can identify with a lot of your struggles with sin. I used a lot of the same "fixes" so to speak and justified my sin using the excuse of having depression and anxiety, and also being angry at lots of stuff going on at the time.

I'll admit that I still struggle with that. I should admit that I'm a Masters candidate, and my major is Psychology with a focus on research, so that probably doesn't help (since I'm being influenced by a lot of, well, deception). I'll probably get a lot of rebuke on here for that, and perhaps that's deserved. I still at this point would hesitate to say that mental illness doesn't exist and is always a direct result of personal sin. But I will agree that sin can exacerbate an existing problem, as well as be the root cause. We're responsible for our personal sin regardless, even if we're sick. I know God doesn't excuse sin like we do.

[Kenneth Winslow]

. I still at this point would hesitate to say that mental illness doesn't exist and is always a direct result of personal sin. But I will agree that sin can exacerbate an existing problem, as well as be the root cause.

I hope you find the time to read the book.

[Jackie]

I hope you find the time to read the book.

I've read through some of it, and I'll admit that. I will need to read it through and through, probably a few times, before I can really discuss it in any depth.

[TheChickenWhisperer]

I could see in my psychology class in college that sin was simply being justified.  One of my brothers "has a mental illness" and I have frequently though it was just a way to justify sin in his life.  I hope to transcribe this book soon for Chris (into Braille).  I know he has done a good job on it.