Photo concept of a neural link between woman praying and spirituality. By metamorworks/stock.adobe.com.
According to a new report from Pew Research Center, a growing share of US adults say religion is gaining influence in American life. Recent news bears this out:
- Young adults are flooding churches after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
- The faith arm of his organization, Turning Point USA, has doubled its church network in the month after his death and gained 200,000 new Christians.
- We are seeing a resurgence of Gen Z and Millennial men returning to church.
This is good news for society: According to Dr. Lisa Miller, a senior clinical psychologist at Princeton, there is compelling evidence that individuals who cultivate a healthy spiritual life and maintain a connection to the divine are 80 percent less prone to struggle with addiction, 80 percent less likely to engage in socially destructive behavior, and 60 percent more likely to lead personally fulfilling and socially constructive lives.
Scientific studies help explain why: there is a neurological link between prayer; controlled breathing; and the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter essential for regulating mood, emotional balance, and overall mental health.
In How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist, Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman note that engaging in twelve minutes of prayer and reflection a day improves cognitive skills, helps prevent cognitive decline, and builds neural circuits of compassion for others.
But these are the side effects of religion. Its greatest significance comes when our religion is a transforming relationship with the living Christ.
However, there’s a catch.
When “liberty cannot long exist”
The eighteenth-century British philosopher Edmund Burke observed, “Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.” Many in early America were influenced by his conviction that character is the foundation of a stable society.
The nineteenth-century British historian Alexis de Tocqueville therefore said of us: “I do not know if all Americans have faith in their religion—for who can read to the bottom of hearts?—but I am sure that they believe it necessary to the maintenance of republican institutions.” He added, “This opinion does not belong only to one class of citizens or to one party, but to the entire nation; one finds it in all ranks.”
However, Satan opposes all that is good, including all that is good in our nation. Over the generations, he has leveraged our commitment to separating church and state by persuading us to separate faith and state, the spiritual from the secular, religion from the “real world.”
As a result, most Americans—including a majority of America’s Christians—now tolerate private immorality such as elective abortion and same-sex marriage, despite clear biblical teaching. More than three in five Americans view pornography, including half of practicing Christians. Two-thirds of pastors have engaged with porn; one in five is currently struggling with it.
Too many believers have succumbed to the delusion that we can sin privately while serving God publicly. We try to “separate church and state” in our own souls. But the transformation Christ wants to bring in our lives is effected only by his Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is grieved and stifled by private sin (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19).
Unseen corrosion on a plug prevents electrical current from flowing through it. The same is true of our minds and hearts. Solomon asked, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?” (Proverbs 6:27).
“Satan is the master angler”
The good news is that the same Spirit who is hindered by private sin will help us overcome it when we submit our minds and lives to him daily (Ephesians 5:18).
We can pray with the psalmist, “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Psalm 119:36–37). And we can renew our commitment to personal holiness, knowing that as we work, God works: “Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!” (v. 40).
The more we seek to be like Christ, the more Christ will help us be like Christ. The more our private lives align with our public witness. And the more our godly character will draw our broken culture to the Source of our transformed souls.
To this end, let’s close with some very practical advice. I read this week Max Lucado’s wonderful new book Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life. He writes:
When I was a young boy, my father taught me to fish. He showed me how to thread the hook through the worm in such a way that the hook was completely hidden. Unwelcome news for the worm, even worse for the fish. He would see the dancing delight in the middle of the water and bite into it, only to realize he had just swallowed his own defeat.
Satan is the master angler. He knows our desires. He charts our weaknesses. For all we don’t know about him, of this we can be certain: He knows how to hide a hook. And he loves to fish in the deep pools of our thoughts.
What are we to do? Max advises:
When temptation strikes, immediately initiate the Uproot and Replant strategy. Go nuclear on the immoral. Yank lust like a dentist yanks a rotten tooth—pull it out by the roots. . . . .
Meditate on Christ. Running toward him is the best way to run from sin. We keep wrong thoughts out by keeping the right thoughts in. Ponder heaven. Memorize verses. Write psalms. Listen to Christian worship music. . . .
In running toward God, you are running from sin, and the run is so much more enjoyable.
To whom will you “run” today?
Quote for the day:
“God could not love us more than if we had never fallen.” —Charles Spurgeon
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