We are almost finished with this devotional and I cannot believe it is almost the new year. I hope you seek the Lord in the upcoming year and allow Him to influence you in ways you didn’t think possible. If you will open your bibles and read Romans 12:2; Philippians 4:8; and 1 Corinthians 6:12.
I personally feel this is our biggest idol. We are all addicted to our screens. I recently went and saw Homestead in theaters and there was a line that truly sums this idol up. “the internet, our screens, and the convenience of this world is our god”. How accurate is this! Our phones, our tv’s, our iPads, the internet, having the convenience of ordering things online, etc is our gods. We have made them our gods without even realizing we did it. This is how sneaky Satan is. Little by little we get lost in our worlds and we lose focus. How clever he is. Thankfully, we serve a God who is bigger then our little minds. We serve the creator of the universe! How incredible is that?! We run to our screens first thing in the morning, we look to them during idle time, we are unwilling to go anywhere with them, we push God to the side. We are consumed by our screens and we don’t even notice it. We look on social media and compare ourselves to the perfect pictures, we place our identities in our screens and we get lost. We look at things and read things that are ungodly and make us fall into sin. We look at our idols and wish we were more like them, or become obsessed. We make people and things our idols through our screens.
We battle with is idol daily. We must be thoughtful and intentional with our time and what we look at. Now, this can be used to glorify God. We can watch movies or shows that point us back to Christ. We can meet new people and grow in community together, sharing the gospel, we can learn from each other. We have to fight the temptation to be enslaved by our screens. We have to set limitations and boundaries. We have to be careful about what we watch, and consider our time and value it adds to our lives. What are we feeding ourselves and forming our thoughts through our screens? We have to be aware and not get caught up in the lies the enemy feeds us.
Let’s discuss what we just read. I have some questions that I want you to think about, write them down, and if you’d like to comment below we can discuss them together!
- How might you be tempted to idolize your screens?
- In what ways can we sinfully engage with our screens? In what ways can we engage with them in a Godly way?
- How does the gospel transform the way we utilize our screens?
Our hope as we engage with them is to hold them loosely with the highest regard to how the gospel informs and shapes us. With minds and hearts transformed by the work of the gospel, we can engage with our screens in a Godly way. I used to be addicted to certain things and I fell into the lies that the enemy tells us. I refuse to go back. I refuse to get sucked back in and become numb to certain things of this world. Satan is the king of this world, we have to fight daily to keep him out of our minds, our hearts, and our souls. Jesus defeated him, he does not have the victory, unless we give it to him. Will you fight him daily and remind him who your God is? Will you remember that you serve the God who made us out of the dirt we walk on?
I hope you enjoy this study and decide to come back. In our next study we will go over Turning From Idols. I hope you enjoy the beautiful sunset that was made by our loving Father and y’all have a wonderful night.