The study of human behavior in psychology has found that we all act and behave in a particular way. Tim Lahaye in his book “Why You Act in The Way You Do” points out temperament as one of the reasons. This is the excerpt from his book. “The combination of your parents’ genes and chromosomes at conception, which determined your basic temperament nine months before you drew your first breath, is largely responsible for your actions, reactions, emotional responses, and, to one degree or another, almost everything you do…Temperament is the combination of traits we inherited from our parents. No one knows where it resides, but I think it is somewhere in the mind or emotional center (often referred to as the heart). From that source it combines with other human characteristics to produce our basic makeup.”.
He states four types of temperament, namely, Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic and Melancholic. Google has detailed information on these types however, here is the brief description:
Sanguine is a warm, buoyant, lively, and “enjoying” person. Receptive by nature, external impressions easily find their way to his heart, where they cause an outburst of response.
Choleric is hot, quick, active, practical, strong-willed, self-sufficient, and very independent He tends to be decisive and opinionated, finding it easy to make decisions both for himself and other people.
Melancholy is the richest of all the temperaments. He is an analytical, self-sacrificing, gifted, perfectionist type with a very sensitive emotional nature.
Phlegmatic is the calm, easygoing, never-get-upset individual with such a high boiling point that he almost never becomes angry.
All traits mentioned above are a mixture of good and bad. As humans we always want to do good with intentionality, but we end up doing bad as it is easy. The Bible mentions the greatest of human contradictions through one of its Apostle, “I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.”. God created man in His image and likeness. Unfortunately, it was our disobedience and pride to play God that brought sin into our life. This led to our heart filled with guilt. We started living our life since then with a disorganized heart leading to doing bad instead of good. We try to trick God by doing some philanthropic work, doing rituals, and other such things to get rid of guilt and be right with God. However, we fail to realize that these actions have not altered the core sin problem in our heart, and we continue to stumble over and over again.
This battle of the mind and the cry of the desperate heart is making a person to act in a particular way based on the context and response. Is there a solution? Yes, there is! Only Jesus in the entire world diagnosed the heart problem and the sin problem accurately. He has given us the prescription of encountering Him only through holiness and purity of heart. He said, “Be ye holy because I am holy.”. Although it’s a seven-word sentence it can cleanse us and make us whole if we are willing to obey and behave as said.
One can be fanatical being part of a sect or religion, but without a change of heart, one is still guilty. Open your heart to Jesus to cleanse you from all sin. Ask Him for forgiveness and He is willing to transform not only your heart but also your behavior. He has promised life with Him here on earth and for eternity. This hope is there for us because of His resurrection. He is willing to live in our hearts right now if we are willing to let Him in.
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