Transcript Transformation of the Heart: Changing our Motivation

ARC Annual Conference
April 2o11
The Magic Formula of Psychologists:
Paradigms
Freud
•Past experiences influence future
behavior
•We are rarely aware of why we do
what we do
Pavlov
– Classical Conditioning
•UCS pair with CS yields a CR
•Learning by association and value
•Change association or value, change
behavior
Skinner
– Operant Conditioning
The learner interacts with the environment
•Behaviors that are reinforced increase
•Behaviors that are punished decrease
•Paradigm = Sd – R - Sr
As environments/relationships change,
we change
Functional Analysis
Why we do what we do?
•Internal
•Avoidance/Escape
•Affecting Others
•Accessing Tangibles
Method of Behavioral Change
•Observe behavior
•Define behavior
•Measure change
•Change behavior
ADVANTAGE
Matthew 7:1
“Do not judge, or you too will be
judged.”
•Helps
us not to “judge” others
•Discern the merit of their behaviors
•Not to assign value to the person
God calls us to change our motivation
He wants a changed heart
Heart = inner person
= wants, desires, passion
Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
Case # 1 – Man in the nursing home
•Protecting his daughter
•Choking man
The Heart is the source of our behavior
Luke 6:45
(Matthew 12:34b)
A good man brings good things out of
the good stored up in his heart, and
an evil man brings evil things out of
the evil stored up in his heart.
For the mouth speaks what the heart
is full of.
Not just do what is right
•God want s us to want what is right
Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength.
Psalms 37:4
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of
your heart.
•The Heart is corrupt
•We cannot understand it
•We cannot change it
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

Only God can change the heart

Changing the heart is relational

Enhanced by prayer, listening and
responding
Recognizing our dependency on Him
Psalm 51:10,17
10
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within
me.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken
spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Finding our joy in Him
Psalm 119:32
I run in the path of your
commands,
for you have set my heart free.
Trusting in Him
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your
heart and lean not on your own
understanding; 6 in all your ways
submit to him, and he will make
your paths straight.
5
Shaping our relationships with others
1 Peter 1:22
Now that you have purified
yourselves by obeying the truth so
that you have sincere love for each
other, love one another deeply, from
the heart.
Case Study #1
Resolution
Case Study #2
Depressed patient assessing needs of spouse
Case Study #3
Personal prayer to love my wife
CONCLUSION
The past influences the present
•Through association
•Through cues and consequences
But God wants our hearts – our motivation
•This is changed through association with Him
•Only the power of the cross can change a heart
One sleepless night of anguished prayer