Laying out a different course

I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:22-25 NLT)

We've likely all been there - wanting to do good, promising to change, then we revert back into some old pattern of sin that we knew better than to pursue. It is as though there is a power within that seems to draw us back time and time again. There is - it is called our sin nature! Our mind has what is called 'muscle memory'. A very helpful tool when it comes to things like tying our shoes without really thinking about it or driving to work the same way each day without much thought as to how to drive that automobile. When it comes to the sins we indulge in repeatedly, that 'muscle memory' thing is a real challenge! I doubt Paul had any concept of 'muscle memory' when he penned these words, though. He just knew that there was a power that was at war with his mind. He wanted to do good - yet he slipped up. He knew what was right - yet he chose incorrectly. The principle of 'muscle memory' is defined as the process of laying down neural networks that are able to recall certain actions that we repeat until we no longer have to really give them conscious thought. Some call it 'procedural memory', but the principle is just about the same when we think about a particular behavior we engage in that is taken without conscious thought. Once those neural pathways are laid down, it is no longer necessary for us to have purposeful conscious thought to engage in that activity.

If the neural pathways are wrong, then we need God's help to lay down new ones and put up a 'road closed' sign that blocks us from traveling them any longer, don't we? The truth that the battlefield is really our minds is oh so true. The only way to break life-dominating 'neural pathway' type thoughts or actions that result from those thoughts is to replace the pathway with a new and consistently 'right' or 'holy' one. For that, we must ask God's help. Then we must explore what he says is the 'right' pathway as he describes it in his Word. Then we must begin to incorporate the new actions in place of the old. Remember this - a chain is only 'unlinked' one link at a time. New roads aren't built overnight. They take time - repeated steps taken toward a completed path. Take the right first step, then the second. You may have to repeat a few along the way, but you had to do so when learning to tie your shoes and you mastered that 'neural pathway', didn't you? All new habits require consistency. Therein is the rub. So, don't get discouraged when you take two steps forward and one back. God isn't counting the steps it takes - he is just interested in seeing us form those new pathways one step at a time. Just sayin!