The more we discover about God’s creation, the more we realise what an amazing designer He is and how intricate His designs really are. Here’s just one example: Andrew Newberg is a neuroscientist who specialises in studying the relationship between spiritual phenomena, religion, and the human brain. His research has led to the discovery that there are areas in our brains that can be shown to respond to prayer, reading and meditating on sacred texts, group worship, hymn singing, and empathy for other people. The brain’s frontal lobe is used in focusing attention, rational thinking, and decision-making. It responds to prayer and meditation by helping to reduce stress levels, enhance our memory, and increase our capacity for compassion. Newberg’s research suggests that praying for even just a few minutes a day could help to slow the natural decline in our brains as we get older; on top of that, prayer and reading Scripture also appear to deactivate areas in the brain associated with anger, guilt, anxiety, depression, fear, resentment, and pessimism. The Bible tells us that God designed us to have a relationship with Him and that we need to ‘pray without ceasing’, and Newberg’s research seems to back that up. So let’s allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly (see Colossians 3:16 KJV), and join with the psalmist in praising our ingenious and loving Father: ‘Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous’ (Psalm 139:14 NLT). He wants to have a relationship with us so much that He hard-wired us for that exact purpose. That’s how much He loves us.

What Now?

If you don’t already, set aside some time every day for Bible reading, prayer, and worship. If you can’t manage to do all three together, try taking several shorter times throughout the day and focus on a different thing each time.