The games people play...

🎶"Woah, the games people play now

Every night and every day now

Never meanin' what they say now

Never sayin' what they mean"

"Cause you've given up your sanity

For your pride and your vanity

Turn you back on humanity

Oh, and you don't give a

Da, da, da, da, da" 🎶

The well-known psychotherapist Carl Jung; who was in strong opposition to Sigmund Freud; is quoted as saying:

“Until you make the unconscious conscious 

it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is quoted as saying:

"Know thyself". A more modern way of expressing this would be something like, "Be aware of what the hell you are up to", and especially when you may be wilfully ignorant of "what the hell you are up to"!

Dr. Eric Berne; considered to be the father of Transactional Analysis; was also a psychotherapist and author of his famous book for the nonprofessional entitled "Games People Play". The germ of this book is that most people; if not all to some degree; are not aware of the underlying motivations of what they think, do or say. The result is that our words and actions toward other people are often 'gamey'. By 'gamey' I mean that we get a reward for putting other people down while at the same time propping up our own egos. It is however invariably a sign of lack of self-esteem or self-respect.

I have long considered Jesus to be the greatest psychotherapist ever! He was, and continues to be; in the form of His risen Spirit; Healer of mind, body and spirit to all who welcome Him into their hearts and lives!

Let's consider this passage:

"For the Word of God (Logos or Jesus) is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, (He) pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. (He) discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

First off, most Christians are instructed that "Word" in this quotation from Hebrews, means the Bible! This however is clearly incorrect as the Greek word given is "Logos". Logos in this context certainly means the Lord Jesus, as in, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". John 1:1 You can't get any more 'in the beginning' than the first verse of the first chapter of John! And here the "Word" is used three times with the Greek original translation of "Logos"!

(NOTE - in Biblehub you can easily look at the original Greek or Hebrew for any Bible verse by clicking on GRK or HEB found on the second top line. Very useful to get the correct translation!

https://biblehub.com/text/john/1-1.htm

THIS is exactly what the "Word", the risen Son of God, Jesus living within us reveals to us - "discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart"!

With the Spirit of Jesus living within us, we no longer need to worry about the hidden intentions of our heart as all we need to do is look to Jesus and He will reveal them to us. We no longer need to be "walking in darkness" for, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son" Colossians 1:13

Also, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, there is no longer any shame, any lack of self-esteem or self-respect as "... old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!"

No longer is there any need to 'play games' with people

No longer will the darkness of unconscious intentions 'direct your life and determine your fate'

No longer will you not know 'what the hell you are up to'

You will 'know yourself' because your heart and mind will be filled with Christ and filled with His Light!