Mental Exercise

You are here

Mental Exercise

Login or Create an Account

With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later!

Sign In | Sign Up

×
Downloads
MP3 Audio (1.54 MB)

Downloads

Mental Exercise

MP3 Audio (1.54 MB)
×

Does thinking about something affect your brain? What happens when we really focus our thinking?

Transcript

 

[Steve Myers] I was reading an article the other day where scientists took two groups of people. They told the first group to do some physical exercises. Now, the other group, they told them what exercises the other group was doing, but instead of actually having them do those exercises they told them to imagine themselves doing those exercises. So if you see the picture, one group is actually physically doing it. The other ones thinking about it, imagining doing those exercises. Now after those exercises were over, or after they went through this whole situation, they compared the two groups and they found some interesting things.

What do you think they found when they examined the brains of these individuals? They put all kinds of electrodes and things on them and looked at their brain waves. They looked at how their brains changed. And you know what they found? They found that they couldn't tell the difference between the group that actually did the exercises and those that just thought about doing those exercises. So what it reminded me of is the power of thought and how we imagine things in our own mind.

[Darris McNeely] Our emotions, our thought patterns obviously are very, very powerful drivers to life and what comes out of our mouth and the words that we speak, even the actions that we do in one sense have already been formed in a mind and maybe even come out of a mind formed along those particular thinking and acting patterns.

[Steve Myers] The amazing part is, what do we think about? The scientists—don't ask me exactly how they can notice and identify those changes in the brain; I don't understand all of that. But taking what they found and looking at it, thinking about things changes who we are. Now we have the power of thought. God's given us that. So, what are the things that we think about and do we really make a difference in the thoughts that we have?

The interesting thing is that yes, there's power in thinking, but if we don't take it to the next level we're missing something. There's a passage in the Bible in Proverbs 23:7. Proverbs 23:7 reminds us that, "For as he thinks in his heart, so he is." You know, God's given us a brain that we can think amazing things. We can imagine the very best, but God adds to this scientific study I think in a way that is remarkable. Thinking about it, imagining it, that's just not good enough. We've got to take it to the next level and we've got to actually do those things that we're thinking about—that our brain has to change, our thinking has to change, and then we've got to put it into action because if we don't put it into action, what difference does it make?

[Darris McNeely] Then it's all just inside and then it really doesn't make any difference whatsoever.

[Steve Myers] And so I think that's where God says, "My thoughts aren't your thoughts," (Isaiah 55:8) we have to make our thoughts God's thoughts and then put those thoughts into action. And then ultimately we'll be doing the things of God.

[Darris McNeely] That's BT Daily. Join us next time.