Identifying habitual patterns of thinking are important to one’s discipleship!
Do you ever wonder how our brain works and how we can break the cycle of destructive habitual thinking? You are not alone! The brain is the mega center of our belief and plays a huge role in our discipleship. As I read a book titled, “Live a Life of Prayer Without Fear”, by Jennifer Dean, I was reminded of just how habitual our way of thinking can become.
Our discipleship will be hindered if we don’t have our thoughts under God’s control through His Holy Spirit.
God created our brains to be the “hardware” that runs our “software.”
Our friend, and mental health counselor, Karrissa Manchester, explains it this way – “God created our brains in such a way that it forms neural pathways whenever we learn something new, think a new thought, and perform new behaviors. Neural pathways are like grooves in the brain, and those grooves get deeper and deeper the more a certain thought or behavior is repeated. Eventually the grooves are so deep that those thoughts and behaviors become second nature. The good news is that God also created our brains to be “plastic,” meaning those grooves can change as we learn new ways of thinking and behaving. This means that we can literally RENEW our minds! As we align our thinking with God’s Word, His truth will begin to change the neural pathways in our brains – the old grooves will fade and new ones will form!”
When we cooperate with His way and His plans – praying, listening, and letting His Holy Spirit lead us:
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- Our fear-based neural pathways begin transforming into faith-based neural pathways.
- The worry, revenge, and self-preservation pathways begin transforming into gratitude, worship, and love pathways.
- The chaos/drama pathways begin transforming into calm and peaceful pathways.
Watch this brain science in action in Isaiah 43:19 – God tells us not to “dwell on the past (the things our minds have learned)! God is making a new (neural) pathway in the wilderness (of our minds) and through the wasteland (our worldly or fleshly thinking). In other words, start thinking my (God’s) way and not your way.” Then He tells us in Isaiah 55:9: “His ways are higher than our ways.” Next, He comes down to earth as Jesus and teaches us and leaves teachers, like Paul, who can tie it all together for us with verses like Romans 12:2 – “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of YOUR MIND (say what!) and Ephesians 4:23 – “Be renewed in the spirit of your MIND.
God will help us make the new neural pathway, as we begin experiencing Him more and thinking more like Him. He does the work! We cooperate by using our freewill to engage with His Word and then choose His way of thinking over our own.
How to be effective in our own discipleship and discipling others
There are some steps I am working on, and you can too, that will allow us to experience new pathways in our thinking like we never have before, and can help us become fruit bearing disciples:
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- Pray and identify where our thinking may not be aligned with God’s Word.
- Pray some more – for clarity, revelation, understanding.
- Get accountability – tell others where you see the need for change.
- Be intentional about meditating on the truths that have the ability to reshape our thinking.
In other words, let God’s thoughts become your thoughts! Transformed behavior and lives start with transformed thinking, and transformation is part of our discipleship! If you’re not reading the Bible yet or reading it regularly, I encourage you to read and apply this free resource – 8 Steps to Developing a Habit in God’s Word.