Reconditioning Your Spiritual Reflexes.

Reconditioning Your Spiritual Reflexes.

Luke 22:54-62.

“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of his grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God‘s grace. -Every day should be a day of relating to God, on the basis of His grace alone.” Jerry Bridges-

Around the turn of the 20th century, a Russian psychiatrist and physician named Ivan Pavlov performed some groundbreaking experiments that won him a Nobel prize. It was called the Pavlov Dog Study.

Dogs naturally salivate for food, but Pavlov wanted to see if salivation could be caused by another stimulus.

As you may remember from high school science class, Pavlov conditioned the dogs by ringing a bell before feeding them. Eventually, ringing the bell, without the food, was enough in itself to cause salivation.

Pavlov referred to this learned relationship as, a conditioned reflex.

To one degree or another, all of us are- Pavlovian. We have been consciously and subconsciously conditioned our entire lives. And much of our behavior is dictated by those conditioned reflexes.

Example- When my dad was dying, he continually thought that he was in Hartwell, and our fences were down...the horses were getting out. It was always a feeling of desperation. We have to fix it!

Personally, “I’ve had many dreams where I had not fed my horses in days. Terrifying.” PH

Galatians 3:1-4MSG You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. 2 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!”

I have a friend who pumped his gas at a local station where he lives, after filling his tank, he left off with the gas nozzle and hose attached to his car.

Needless to say, every time he gets gas he looks in his right mirror just to make sure he removed the handle and nozzle.

That’s called a conditioned reflex. In-fact, over the course of our lifetime, we acquire an elaborate repertoire of condition reflexes.

Hear Peter’s conditioned reflex- Luke 22:54-62TPT The religious leaders seized Jesus and led him away, but Peter followed from a safe distance. They brought him to the home of the high priest, where people were already gathered out in the courtyard. Someone had built a fire, so Peter inched closer and sat down among them to stay warm. A girl noticed Peter sitting in the firelight. Staring at him, she pointed him out and said, “This man is one of Jesus’ disciples!” Peter flatly denied it, saying, “What are you talking about, girl? I don’t know him!” A little while later, someone else spotted Peter and said, “I recognize you. You’re one of his, I know it!” Peter again said, “I’m not one of his disciples.” About an hour later, someone else identified Peter and insisted he was a disciple of Jesus, saying, “Look at him! He’s from Galilee, just like Jesus. I know he’s one of them.” But Peter was adamant. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Don’t you understand? I don’t even know him.” While the words were still in his mouth, the rooster crowed. At that moment, the Lord, who was being led through the courtyard by his captors, turned around and gazed at Peter. All at once Peter remembered the words Jesus had prophesied over him, “Before the rooster crows in the morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” Peter burst into tears, ran off from the crowd, and wept bitterly.

I've read the story of Peter’s denial countless times, but I wonder if Peter knew of Pavlov Dog study, A conditioned reflex. Lol!

After that event, Maybe Peter felt a twinge of guilt every time he heard a rooster crow?

When we moved into our house, we were concerned about the road noise from I -75 however, now, we never hear it.

With that said, “In my opinion, “I’m not sure if there is a more annoying sound, that of a rooster!”