"The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin" Proverbs 5.22
The brain is plastic. "'Every experience begins and ends in your brain. The actual physical patterns of the brain have a dramatic impact on how we think, feel and behave from moment to moment.' There is a competitive nature of brain plasticity that effects each of us. This is the 'use it of lose it' quality. Without getting too technical, a synaptic pruning of neurological connections occurs. The thoughts and emotions we "feed" as we mature become strengthened, while those we ignore diminish - some to the point of annihilation. The more we practice an activity the more ingrained it becomes in our brain, mapping out brains for future similar experiences. The saying goes, neurons that fire together, wire together". [Closing the Flood Gates by A.E. Gillies p.49]
Our brains are not hard-wired but molded by the actions we repeat which create a brain map. What is then mapped in the brain becomes the compulsions that drive the individual to pursue more and more of the same experience. The conclusion for some who continue to practice certain sins may be that "I was born this way" because the brain map has so much become their driving compulsion. Our bodies and brains are so intricately connected that we can become slaves to sin as the Bible teaches, feeling that we can never be set free from this habitual slavery to sin. But God is able to bring forgiveness and break the bondage of sin from those past actions. The brain can be renewed and will be restored over time through a new slavery to righteousness. We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made and become what God has created us to be when we are submitted to the God of all Grace.
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