Twelve24
What is Twelve24?
As we put all our attention on Him in worship, we are being transformed! Studies have shown that meditating for as little as twelve minutes a day creates new neural pathways, which means new ways of thinking leading to new habits and actions.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18, NIV)
The beautiful brain!
It bears repeating… as we contemplate, focus, meditate on Him, we are changed. As we put all our attention on Him, we are being transformed! And neuroplasticity confirms this. Studies have shown that meditating for as little as twelve minutes a day creates new neural pathways, which means new ways of thinking leading to new habits and action
Meditation today often gets a bad rap. And yet the Bible instructs us to meditate no less than 23 times (the vast majority of these are in the Psalms implying a musical aspect to the meditation). We’re not talking about emptying your mind of everything so its susceptible to anything that wants to influence us. What we meditate on matters—and again, neuroscience agrees!
Neurotheology (the study of how our brains interact with God) has shown that meditating, in particular on a good God, has a heightened positive impact on our neural pathways—an exponential effect on the strength of those neural pathways that are being formed.
Now when we add one more component—music—we experience an even greater effect as “neurons that fire together wire together.” In a nutshell, this means that the changes that happen in our brain become “stickier” with a better chance of becoming permanent over time. Music therapy puts this theory into practice and has seen measurable success as they implement musical strategies to influence positive changes in people.
And, no surprise, the Bible was way ahead of science when it instructed us to let the peace of Jesus rule in our hearts as we let His message dwell (meditation) among us through music with gratitude (Col. 3:15-17, my own words). Did you catch it? Meditation—good God—music. What better way for the goodness of who God is to settle within us than to focus on His characteristics through meditative worship?!
So, when we spend as little as twelve minutes a day in worship meditation, we are forming the right kind of new neural pathways (the ones that lead to right thinking. Right thinking leads to wise choices…) that have the best chance of staying put!
We’re excited for you to experience God meeting with you through this simple daily act as we allow his transformative power to turn our —
Anxiety to Peace
Fear to Love
Mourning to Joy
Disappointment to Hope
Doubt to Faith
Anger to Delight
Impatience to Patience
Weakness to Strength
…And the list goes on