Dopamine and the brain’s reward systems reveal how God has designed the human nervous system to learn, hope, and pursue what we value: beginning with the landmark discovery by James Olds and Peter Milner (1954) that specific brain circuits reinforce behaviour, through Wolfram Schultz’s demonstration that dopamine neurons encode reward prediction errors that drive learning (Schultz, Dayan, & Montague, 1997), and further refined by Kent Berridge and Terry Robinson’s distinction between “wanting” (motivational drive) and “liking” (pleasure) (Berridge & Robinson, 1998), neuroscience has shown that dopamine is less a simple “pleasure chemical” than a teacher of expectation, effort, and meaning. These insights illuminate motivation not as mere impulse, but as a finely tuned system enabling perseverance, creativity, and moral choice, aligning with the Biblical vision of humans as purposeful beings who learn through discipline and hope: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12), and “I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14). From a Christian perspective, reward circuitry can be seen as part of God’s good creation, intended to orient desire toward what is truly life-giving, while also reminding us of the need for wisdom and self-control when these systems are misdirected (1 Corinthians 6:12). Scientifically, this research has transformed our understanding of addiction, depression, education, and habit formation, empowering individuals to cultivate healthier motivations and societies to design environments, including schools and workplaces, and to formulate public policies that support wellbeing, resilience, and compassion, thereby uniting rigorous neuroscience with ethical responsibility and spiritual insight for the flourishing of both persons and communities.