MindCraft Challenges

Kristin Laurin and her colleagues conducted one of many studies demonstrating that thinking about God can change people's behavior. In their study, they activated people's thoughts about God. People were more likely to be resistant to temptation—however, they were also less likely to actively pursue goals when they thought about a controlling God. Laurin and her colleagues interpreted this as people feeling less like agents while thinking about an omnipotent God (the participant’s religious beliefs didn’t change the pattern). When people thought about God as a guide, they were both resistant to temptation and willing to pursue their goals.

Challenge: Spend a day regularly reading, memorizing, and reciting Psalm 121. Did your motivation or susceptibility to temptation change from what it usually is as you thought about God’s constant guidance?

Read More
The Laurin “thinking about God” study:
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025971
More about religion and self-control:
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014213

Perception can be trained: People who practice certain video games, who receive intense training in Buddhist meditation, or who engage in immersive visualization during Christian prayer show improved performance on basic visual perception tasks. Notably for this challenge, the Christians who intentionally immersed themselves in a Biblical scene during prayer reported feeling God’s presence more in their daily lives.

Challenge:
In Steps to Christ, Ellen White describes prayer this way: “Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.” While praying this week, first read and visualize a passage (such as Ps. 23 or Is. 61:1-3) that provides a scene depicting God’s presence, then pray while visualizing talking to God as to a friend. Does this change your experience?

Read More:
Christian prayer and perception:
https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12342090
Buddhist meditation and perception:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610371339
Video games and perception:
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014345