For a little over a decade, a growing number of neurotheologians (researchers who study the brain science behind religious and spiritual experience) have brought prayer into the lab. The results are stunning. 

 

Not only is prayer proving to be incredibly healthy — right up there with eating right and exercising — it is rewiring our brains. What’s more, the neuroscience behind prayer is reigniting old debates about nature or nurture, exploding dualistic body-versus-spirit theology and sparking controversy over the reality of consciousness.

 

Andrew Newberg has been studying the neurological effects of prayer and meditation since the late 1990s. The director of research at the Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine in Philadelphia, Newberg is the author of several books, including How God Changes Your Brain. His pioneering experiments involve inserting radioactive dye into the brains of both spiritual novices and high-achievers when they’re hard at prayer.

 

“There isn’t just one part of the brain that makes us religious or spiritual. If there is a spiritual part of ourselves, it’s our entire brain and how it works when we have these deep experiences, because it seems to be a complex pattern of activity in different directions.”

 

Newberg reports increased activity in the frontal lobes (the part of the brain that helps focus attention) and, depending on the kind of prayer, increased activity in the language, visualization, emotional and motor centres. The difference between prayer and other activities lies in the ignition.

 

While prayer revs up certain parts of the brain, it shuts down others. Several studies show that at the height of prayer, the parietal lobes (the portion of the brain that normally takes our sensory information, orients us in the world and gives us a sense of ourselves) go dark. In other words, when people describe “getting lost” in prayer or “feeling at one with the universe,” that’s exactly what’s happening neurologically.

 

(Culled from The United Church Observer’s January 2015 issue with the title “Unravelling the mysteries of prayer..”)

 

 

Matthew 5:5 - “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

 

Oxford definition of Meek: quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on

 

Jesus always seems to engage our thinking at an extraordinary level. When I think about people who mostly deal with land -  real estate developers, they hardly look like the definition of meek.

 

So what picture comes to mind when you think of a meek person? I can almost surmise that the meek is really not interested in inheriting anything let alone the earth until I realised Jesus’ perspective of the meek.

 

Biblical meekness is not weakness but rather refers to exercising God’s strength under His control- i.e., demonstrating power without undue harshness.

 

Meekness is a strategy.

 

Consider:

1. The angry man at the airport counter who was denied his request of carrying an extra piece of luggage unto the plane cabin, who then in frustration lashed out at the airport attendant “Don’t you know who I am?” And the attendant replied through the public address system, “Attention please, there is a gentleman here who does not know who is.”

 

2. ⁠When you begin to raise your voice or lash out at people, you’ve just given your power away. You are out of control!

 

3. In Luke 9:54-55, Jesus rebuked the disciples that wanted to call fire down from heaven and destroy people that did not receive Him. He cautioned that the power we should show is not a display of fire (like Elijah) but power to release grace like the Son of God.

 

So how does inheriting the earth affect your perspective? Psalm 24:1 reminds us that “The Earth is the Lord’s”, hence God has the capacity to give it to you as an inheritance.

 

 

Let’s examine a couple of examples of patriarchs that demonstrated meekness:

 

1. Abraham

In Genesis 13, aware of the conflict between his and Lot’s crew, Abraham pleaded with his nephew to choose a side of the whole land and he would go the opposite side, to prevent the two companies engaging in strife. After Lot separation from his uncle, God said to Abraham to lift up his eyes and look from the place where he was - 360 degrees - for “all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”

 

Fast forward. The unthinkable happened. Lot and his goods became collateral damage in the explosive crossfire between some powerful brokers in the region, one of the which was the king of Sodom, who ruled the territory Lot chose when he departed from Abraham.

 

Who was given the assignment to rescue Lot - the boy he trained, taught the ropes, made to prosper to the extent to which he became great and had resources, that he had to separate to make room for a peaceful existence? Abraham. And Abraham undertook the assignment with meekness; put together a formidable team and hunted the kings down and rescued his relative Lot and his possessions.

 

The meek are humble enough to seek God the Father in prayer in Jesus’ name. 2Chronicles 7:14-16 declares “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” 

 

2. David

Regarded as one of the greatest kings in Israel, David also was exemplary is his meekness, especially in the way he treated king Saul who sought David’s life without any legitimate cause (1Samuel 24).

 

Given the chance, how would you treat someone who is incensed to take you out just because you are liked and you experience grace, favour, and success in all you do (Perhaps doing better than them as reported by others)?

 

When you receive the earth as an inheritance, you get the fullness thereof, the world and its inhabitants (Psalm 24:1). Hence, David by revelation in Psalm 2:8 declares of God, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.”

 

The earth in one form or the other shall exist for ever and some category of people classed as the ‘meek’ will inherit it.

 

 

 

Father, I activate the power to release Your grace into every situation in My life according to 2Corinthians 9:8 which says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” - This is experiencing great exploits in God. IJN