What Drives You ? (Part 2)

I wrote a previous article about what drives us in life in our decision making.  In the first article, I discussed that discovering what drives our choices is crucial and certainly worth our effort to better understand the causes and misconceptions about what drives us. My hope is to help us all evaluate what motivates us to make the best decisions and thus discover ways to fulfill God’s calling in our lives.

King David made a profound statement in the Psalms when he said we are “Wonderfully & Fearfully Made” and I think he didn’t know the half of it. What we know now compared with what David knew then is vast and yet David observed the intricacies of the his own body and marveled at it. He saw the Creator’s design and thus grew in his faith towards God.  We should strive to do the same.

Psalms 139:14 (NLT)                                                                                                                                                                             Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!   Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.

I’m going to get into some complexities of how the brain works, but stick with me because in the end you can discover how to “Shape” your own decisions to work better for you.

In the last 100 years science has made many discoveries about the human brain, and countless other parts of our bodies, which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that our bodies had a designer behind them all. The complexity of our human body is quite astounding. In researching the brain and how we make decisions I have discovered so many things I never knew before with regards to what part of our brain is involved and how the process works.

Some 2,500 years ago, Aristotle wrote volumes on how man primarily makes decisions based on logic and reason.  That belief has guided doctors and scientists from Aristotle until now. New research by neuroscience into the activities of the brain, in real time, show how decisions are being made.  This has helped scientists see how the different parts of the brain interact with each other and thus how people make choices. What they found is “Emotions Rule In Decision-making“, not primarily logic or reason. That, my friend, is a huge leap for many people to accept yet it looks to be true.

The brains emotional “Trigger Point” is a small almond shaped component called the “Amygdala”. Our emotion based requests for a decision triggers a subconscious emotional memory from our database and we get a quick automatic “Gut Feeling” for the right way to go. It is possible for this part of our brain to be damaged and then even the smallest decisions become difficult.

A trigger is a decision shortcut that the brain uses to avoid the time consuming and laborious effort required to make so many complex decisions. Consider the thousand decisions we make daily and we can’t stop and calculate each one or we would be forever stuck making simple decisions rather than growing into the complex ones of adulthood. Consider how hard it is for a baby to figure out holding things. As the child grows they develop those triggers in which the “Feel” their way through movements and choices.

Inside our emotions we have these programmed triggers that are meant to reinforce right decisions and choices. Our learned relationships are meant to be a trigger in which we discover trust and loyalty. Those qualities, when reinforced by positive feelings, motivate us to invest in and protect those relationships, even at great cost.

Here is a interessting statement to consider by Mark Powers & Michael Hammond:

“We are NOT thinking machines; We are feeling machines that think.” 

Considering that this is a true way of thinking, how should a Christian understand how they can or can’t make choices based on our faith? Does our feelings about God and faith affect our choices?

There are a number of Christian denominations that capitalize on memorizing scripture as their number one pursuit. This sounds good but we have just learned that if our memories are not based in a positive feeling we are not as apt to automatically choose them. On the other hand, if our decisions are based on a sense of how loved by God we are then reading the scriptures becomes a pathway that we gravitate to. The more our emotional soul is reinforced by our relationship with God the more we long to please and honor him. Consider the cold hearted religious people we have all met. They can quote scripture all day long but where is the love of God in them? On the other hand, if we meet a young Christian who is so emotionally fulfilled by walking and learning about God it becomes a delight and pleasure to be around them and help them.

Jesus taught so much about the motives of the human heart. His core desire was and is to get his disciples -US, to desire acting out of love, not just the law and commandments. The pharisees taught a cold hearted obedience whereas Jesus taught an obedience out of love.

John 13:34-35                                                                                                                                                                                                 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12                                                                                                                                                                                                    “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 

Paul the apostle wrote so much about the Christian life and what it should look like and yet we often end up trying to be obedient to God and his word out of sheer will power rather than out of love which produces obedience. Love was to be the foundation by which we operate.

Romans 13:8                                                                                                                                                                                                Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;  for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

The apostle Peter wrote about having our souls purified for a sincere love of the brethren. Sincere love is one that is founded in love, not legalism.

1 Peter 1:22                                                                                                                                                                                                 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 

The apostle John closes out what we know as the New Testament.  He uses the affection and generosity of God to motivate believers. The strongest Christians I have ever met, young or old, are those that continue to feed their souls on the love of God and the intimacy of that relationship. The most religious and judgmental Christian is the one that tries to be obedient to God though legalistic obedience to scripture by will power. They are the ones that look for sin in other believers because they feel guilty over the sin in their own lives due to a lack of relational tenderness. Remember, it is the love of God that motivates us to repent of sin, not legalism and logic.

1 John 3:1                                                                                                                                                                                                       See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

I will be writing a third part to this series on what drives us to have healthy souls in Christ. Be ready to grow in the love of God and his mercy as we learn to love God with both our emotions and our minds.

Questions:

1) Do you find yourself struggling to be obedient to the word of God? Maybe the problem is not what you know scripturally but your distance from your Heavenly Father? (John 17:3)

2) Do you find it easy to judge your fellow believer? Maybe you really struggle with opening you emotions in you worship experience each week?

Loving to use our minds in the process of understanding truth,

Pastor Dale