The Physiology of Victory
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom. 12:2, NIV
You determine your destiny by the choices you make each day. How you think and feel shape your moral character, for they influence all of your words and actions. It’s a fact: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).
I was excited when I read Eldon and Esther Chalmers’ book Making the Most of Family Living and learned that our choices actually make physical and chemical changes in our brain cells and nervous system. Each time we make a decision to think the same way, repeat the same words, or do the same things over again, a small protein molecule, called a bouton, begins to form at the end of the sending fiber of the brain cell being stimulated. This bouton enlarges and multiplies with each repetition. It also secretes a chemical that causes the message to be transferred along the nerve pathway. The boutons make it easier and easier to do the same thing. Repetition of anything, good or bad, causes the habit to become confirmed in our lives; and fixed habits determine our character.
The good news is that we can overcome old sinful habit patterns—those boutons don’t have to fire! When we choose to give our will over to Jesus, and avail ourselves of His abundant provisions of grace to keep us from falling—daily study of His Word, heartfelt prayer, and practicing His presence—the Holy Spirit begins to form sanctified boutons that secrete gamma-aminobutyric acid, and this chemical puts the brakes on the firing action of the old sinful habit pattern. The boutons of new sanctified habits also increase and multiply with the choices we make—thus we are being transformed by a literal renewing of our minds. This is the physiology of victory and how we can develop a character like that of Jesus.
Through the full surrender of your will to Jesus, you can know the joy of victory over every inherited and cultivated tendency to evil and will be prepared to meet your Saviour face-to-face.
Jesus, I need Your sanctified boutons to put the breaks on my bad habits. I surrender my will to You.
You determine your destiny by the choices you make each day. How you think and feel shape your moral character, for they influence all of your words and actions. It’s a fact: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).
I was excited when I read Eldon and Esther Chalmers’ book Making the Most of Family Living and learned that our choices actually make physical and chemical changes in our brain cells and nervous system. Each time we make a decision to think the same way, repeat the same words, or do the same things over again, a small protein molecule, called a bouton, begins to form at the end of the sending fiber of the brain cell being stimulated. This bouton enlarges and multiplies with each repetition. It also secretes a chemical that causes the message to be transferred along the nerve pathway. The boutons make it easier and easier to do the same thing. Repetition of anything, good or bad, causes the habit to become confirmed in our lives; and fixed habits determine our character.
The good news is that we can overcome old sinful habit patterns—those boutons don’t have to fire! When we choose to give our will over to Jesus, and avail ourselves of His abundant provisions of grace to keep us from falling—daily study of His Word, heartfelt prayer, and practicing His presence—the Holy Spirit begins to form sanctified boutons that secrete gamma-aminobutyric acid, and this chemical puts the brakes on the firing action of the old sinful habit pattern. The boutons of new sanctified habits also increase and multiply with the choices we make—thus we are being transformed by a literal renewing of our minds. This is the physiology of victory and how we can develop a character like that of Jesus.
Through the full surrender of your will to Jesus, you can know the joy of victory over every inherited and cultivated tendency to evil and will be prepared to meet your Saviour face-to-face.
Jesus, I need Your sanctified boutons to put the breaks on my bad habits. I surrender my will to You.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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