06 Oct Knowing Truth Isn’t Always Enough
TRUTH NEEDS TO BE REPEATED OFTEN ENOUGH THAT IT CHANGES US
Neuroplasticity is the science of how the brain changes:
Neuro = brain
Plasticity = change
It is an exciting new field of study that is showing science catching up to the Bible. We used to believe that the brain was static and could not change. If you had brain damage, the conventional wisdom was that it was tough luck. You just had to compensate… get by without that part of your brain.
Now, however, science has discovered that the brain is able to change in dramatic ways. People with brain damage can find new ways to restore capacities that had been lost. People with learning disabilities can find ways of working around their disabilities to achieve exceptional results. Average people can train their brains with new capacities and achieve intellectual heights previously unknown. Neuroplasticity is a game-changer.
When we think a thought, that thought travels through the brain as an electrical impulse along a specific pathway in the brain. If that thought is thought a second time, it goes along the exact same pathway. If it is thought enough times, that thought begins to wear a path in the brain. Think it some more and it wears a deep groove. Think it even more and it wears a four-lane highway in the brain.
It is when thoughts have gone through our minds often enough, creating a deep enough pathway that they begin to affect our attitudes, values and behavior.
For example, we read in Scripture that whoever “looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28) Let’s say a man hears that once on a Sunday morning in church. Then, the next Monday through Friday his brain is bombarded with suggestive images a hundred times a day through advertising, entertainment, the Internet and other sources. On Saturday, which impulse is lodged more deeply in his brain?
Exactly!
So, for thoughts of mental purity to outweigh thoughts of mental impurity, thoughts of mental purity must go through the mind often enough to offset the impure bombardment.
Through calculated intention, we must think thoughts of mental purity often enough to wear a path, a groove, and even a four-lane highway in our mind sufficient to offset the four-lane highway that is created through unavoidable exposure to impure thoughts in the course of living everyday life.
Psalm 1 tells us to meditate on the Scriptures day and night, or constantly throughout the day. We don’t know what the psalmist meditated on day and night, but in today’s world, it might well need to be things to encourage a pure thought life.
For Christians, truth that we have known, perhaps for years, may not have changed us deeply in our attitudes, values and behavior. The reason is likely that we have not caused that truth to go through our brain often enough for the truth to actually change us.
So, because of how the brain works… because of how the brain changes… we must choose what we want to become, and then feed our brains the input needed, and feed it often enough, for the brain to change. That input, of course, starts with memorizing and meditating on MegaVerses and SuperVerses, and expands from there. When we choose to think transforming thoughts often enough, we can turbocharge our spiritual growth to levels we cannot otherwise know.
________________________________________________________________________________
This is a newer blog and I am hoping to expand my readership. If you know someone you think may find this blog valuable, please forward it to them. I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at max@bravenewdiscipleship.com. I will not be able to answer all emails, but I may address in future blogs the questions/issues you raise. And, please “Like” my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/maxanders.author
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.