Genesis 32:22-31
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Romans 8:26
The Holy Spirit Helps in Times of Our Weakness
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Romans 7:18-23
Wanting to Do Good in Spite of Sinning
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
My father was a Disabled Veteran from World War II and he limped...As I read the story of Jacob as he wrestles with the angel, I think of my father...We don't read about Jacob complaining about his limp, and my father never complained about his injuries he received from the war...My father used a cane, for his noticeable limp, as long as I can remember from his injury...He needed this cane as a crutch to help him walk and to get around...His crutch was a great help and assistance (to him) in getting through life...His cane and this crutch and his limp were all very real -and these things shaped my life and many of my beliefs...
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist who founded the practice of psychoanalysis was an atheist...He believed that man had created God in his own mind to help relieve himself of the discomforts of life...Man looked and found in his mind this Comforter, or Great Comforter (who Freud said did not exist)...Freud thought man needed a crutch to help him get through his problems in life...A lifelong Helper...Freud thought that man wanted a Great Father figure that would be there when he died, and the Great Father figure (man invented) could be Almighty and do the things to fulfill all of man's unsettling thoughts in his mind...Therefore, man had this God become the Perfect Father figure...He would have a home in heaven, and when we die we get to go to heaven and be with Him...Freud seems to have thought that all men need this Comforter, this Helper, this Advocate and Father and that all men have this God-need in their minds...
Freud doesn't say this, but since he studied the mind of man, does it make me weaker or lesser to believe in God and this crutch that he thinks I invented?...Also, why doesn't Freud and other atheists have this desire for this crutch or Helper?...Could it be that Freud and others do not believe, because God gives us free will and we can choose to believe or not to believe in Him?...Could it also be as St. Paul says that we do, in fact, have a Holy Spirit in us, and that is what is drawing us to the idea of a Comforter, and the Perfect Father figure?...Could it be there and be the Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2; Acts 5:9)?...
I think Freud was mostly right...For instance I use God as a crutch to help me -often when I have troubles and problems in life...I just believe what Freud failed to see was the Truth and the Holy Spirit -trying to guide us to the Truth...I believe this (Holy Spirit) is the part where man invented God, as Freud tries to explain and write about...How does he know that many men or that all men invented God -and need God...Atheists like him claim not to need Him...And I would bet they face the same amount of problems as other men...Couldn't have one man, let us say Abraham, invented this idea and crutch or God, or maybe Moses invented the Crutch or the God of Israel?...Then they could have spread the Word...
Many years before psychoanalysis, St. Paul in writing to the Romans, talked of the mind...He talked about his mind (and the mind of all men actually) and how we, as man, desire always to do good, but somehow cannot carry it out...The good Paul wanted to do was strong but there was also this evil urge in him to not carry out the good things in his mind...St. Paul teaches us that we have this obstacle in us that impedes our mind, a goodness and an evil waging a war in his mind...St. Paul was not a neurologist or psychologist, but he understood -he had unsettling thoughts in his mind...St. Paul also had the advantage to have friends as St. Peter, and eyewitness to Jesus...He also knew St. James, brother of Jesus...And if one thinks of Jesus is the Son of God, as St. Paul did, then God does exist in his mind, in my mind, and in other people's minds...
After seeing my father use a crutch as an aid to his life, I have no problem for me to use God as a crutch (although I think crutch is the wrong way to explain and to describe our LORD and Savior)...My father's crutch was not something he invented in his mind, but it was something he actually needed to help him in life...I also need help in my life...I need help getting around in my life...I do need comforting in my life...If everyone believed in God and could follow His and His Son's teachings (and get these obstacles and impediments out of our minds and lives) then everyone would love one another (even our enemies) and get along in this world...Then there would be peace on earth...