11 Sep Why Don’t We Grow More Quickly Spiritually?
WE AUTOMATICALLY BECOME LIKE WHAT WE PUT INTO OUR BRAINS
Have you ever struggled with why you don’t grow spiritually as fast as you would like to? Have you ever thought that you ought to be further along in your spiritual life than you are?
I know I have. As a new Christian years ago, I didn’t understand why I wasn’t growing faster, spiritually. I had been a hippy drummer in a rock band when I became a Christian, so I had a lot of kinks that needed to be worked out in my life.
But I was eager, committed. I wanted to change from my old life to the new one promised in Scripture, and was willing to do what people said what I should I do to grow, but I still struggled with intractable negative attitudes, values, behavior.
Eventually, I erroneously concluded that there must be something wrong with me.
After many years of trial and error, however, I have concluded that there was nothing wrong with me. Instead, the model taught to me on how to grow spiritually was inadequate.
I was told just to go to church on Sunday, and to read my Bible and pray every day. There is certainly nothing wrong with those things… they are essential… but for me, they were not enough.
Once I learned a more complete strategy for change, I began to experience the growth that I had earlier longed for.
The power of the subconscious
What was missing in my life was an understanding of how the brain works… and how often a given truth might have to go through my brain before it actually changed me.
What I didn’t understand was that the subconscious brain is responsible for the majority of our thinking. “We are aware of a tiny fraction of the thinking that goes on in our brains, and we can control only a tiny part of our conscious thoughts. The vast majority of our thinking efforts goes on subconsciously.” 1
In the early days of my Christian life, I may have learned a new Christian truth. I may have even philosophically wanted to embrace it. But there were conflicting secular “truths” already deeply embedded in my brain.
Having had years for old “truth” to form my subconscious beliefs, the new “true truth”, did not always immediately replace the old subconscious beliefs.
My subconscious was controlling my beliefs, limiting the degree to which I was able to embrace new, conflicting truth.
The power of an integrated brain
Furthermore, in an article in the New York Times, Benedict Carey wrote:
“We’re finding that we have these unconscious behavioral guidance systems that are continually furnishing suggestions through the day about what to do next, and the brain is considering and often acting on those, all before conscious awareness. Sometimes those goals are in line with our conscious intentions and purposes, and sometimes they’re not.” 2
That is what was happening to me. I embraced one value on a conscious level, but a conflicting value on the subconscious level. And, of course, because it was subconscious, I didn’t realize it.
For example, in our conscious brain we may know the verse that says, “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) And we may think we believe that, and that we are trusting God for our welfare.
But in our subconscious brain, we may not be so sure. When things are headed in a very bad direction with no obvious hope that they will turn around, we may begin to question whether or not God is actually going to meet our needs.
Or, we may be subconsciously concerned that God might not supply all our needs on the level to which we’ve become accustomed.
Or that God’s definition of a “need” and our definition of a “need” might not be the same.
As a result, when our financial security is seriously threatened, we typically respond with stampeding anxiety rather than peace, with the fear coming from our subconscious thoughts and values.
Therefore, one of the great challenges for the Christian is to bring the attitudes, values and behavior of the subconscious brain into harmony with those of the conscious.
The Power of Repetition
The process of bringing harmony between the conscious and subconscious can be turbocharged by repetition.
As we consciously feed our brains “true truth”… over and over and over again… that truth sinks deeply into our subconscious, changing our fundamental attitudes, values and behavior.
Then, the truth that the subconscious feeds back to us becomes the same as our conscious beliefs, bringing harmony to us.
We feed our subconscious, and then our subconscious feeds us.
Memorizing Bible verses that speak to our areas of need for change is the single most powerful thing we can do to feed our subconscious.
We must memorize passages so well we can say them as fast as an auctioneer. It is not until then that we have mastered the verses so well that they begin to master us.
The level of repetition necessary to be able to say verses as fast as an auctioneer causes the truth to sink deeply into our subconscious where it changes our true beliefs, bringing our attitudes, values and behavior into alignment with Scripture.
Conclusion
That is why, in Psalm 1:2-3, David wrote:
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by rivers of water, yielding its fruit in it season; and its leaf does not wither and in whatever he does, he prospers.
Meditating on God’s word day and night provides the repetition necessary to impact the brain sufficiently to bring about deep change.
And, that is why, in Philippians 4:8, the apostle Paul wrote:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Dwelling on things that meet these criteria – which means we do not dwell on things that don’t meet these criteria – changes the brain in profound and positive ways.
The degree of repetition that these disciplines induces drives truth into our subconscious where it transforms our fundamental beliefs, bringing a more rapid pace of change in our lives than we would otherwise experience.
This was a missing ingredient in my early spiritual life. Had I understood this, I feel confident I would have progressed faster spiritually in my early days than I did.
Someone once said, “We become what we behold.” As we behold the right things… often enough, long enough… we become the right thing.
If you aren’t already memorizing verses for areas of specific need for spiritual growth in your life, I’d encourage you to start with these MegaVerses that I believe every Christian should have memorized so well they can say them as fast an auctioneer! This will put you on the road to accelerating your spiritual growth.
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1Dr. Barry Gordon, professor of neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Scientific American, February 14, 2013
2Benedict Carey, New York Times, July 31, 2007
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