Preoccupied and Prayerless Series order #8
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Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Psalm 119:36-36
There are things pulling at us every day, distracting us, tempting us, always vying for pieces of our heart - and the technology we now hold in our hands has made it increasingly difficult to turn our eyes from looking at worthless things. We can get lost for hours scrolling through social media feed, posting this, sharing that, searching for this, looking at that, saturating our minds with the world, because we now hold the world in our hands.
One of the most obvious issues we face in finding freedom from living preoccupied and prayerless are the distractions that can be brought into our lives via our smartphones and the technology we carry around with us. We no longer have to sit in front of a TV or computer, we can choose to be distracted anywhere, at anytime.
This technology at our fingertips can certainly be used in God honoring ways - for ministry, to share the Gospel, encourage our fellow believers, and access God honoring content that helps us grow in our faith. Unfortunately, I have found in my years leading small groups that a majority will admit to spending far more time focused on their phone and looking to the world than they do focused on Jesus and looking to The Word.
It doesn't take much scrolling on social media or looking online to see that the world is more than happy to give us advice for our struggles and answers to our needs. If we're not actively guarding our hearts, looking to the world for solutions to our problems can become automatic. It's certainly less time consuming to speak our requests to Siri than bowing our heads in prayer - and it only takes seconds to get a page full of responses from the internet.
When we look to the world for guidance, we also become privy to charming, socially accepted labels which can cover just about any sin we struggle with, along with the support to embrace it.
And truth be told, we kind of like the labels. They allow us to rationalize our sin as normal and harmless. They give us a false sense of #empowerment as we blend in with the world around us while still maintaining our #Christfirst status. I mean which one of us wouldn't choose #confidence or #selfcare over vanity or immodesty if we are given the ability to make that choice?
Labels in and of themselves are certainly not the problem and are completely valid for genuine confidence, self care, etc, when rooted in a desire to glorify God. The heart issue involved is the sin in our lives that we have the ability to hide behind these trendy #labels that the world provides.
The more we saturate our minds with the world, the easier it becomes fill our hearts with these labels, garnering the world's approval and applause. And if we feel as though we will never measure up to those picture perfect photos, lives and labels, we can begin filling our hearts with negative and self destructive labels. These labels may not be #worthy of worldly likes and applause, but they're especially useful to Satan in his mission to steal, kill and destroy.
The good news is, the more we choose to saturate our minds with God's Word, the easier it becomes to surrender those pieces of our heart to Jesus, allowing Him to replace the world's labels with the Truth of our identity in Him.
He desires to fill your heart with His promises so you can be reminded every minute, of every day, that every bit of who you are is covered by His #grace and you are
and no one and nothing can ever change THOSE #labels!
When we choose to turn to Jesus and saturate our minds with His Truth instead of the world's lies, He is able to teach us His way and we learn to rely on His faithfulness in our lives. He will give us an undivided heart for Him and instead of trying to worship and praise Him with the pieces of our heart left unlabeled by the world, we will know the incredible joy of worshipping and praising Him with ALL of our heart, #unhindered.
Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:11
Lord, I'm tired of living with a heart divided between this world and You, between the world's ways and Your Word. I am sorry for using the world's labels to hide sin in my life. Please search my heart, because I desire to surrender it all to you. Please show me any unconfessed sin so that I can repent and return to You with ALL of my heart. Thank you for loving me and for your unending mercy and grace. In Jesus name, Amen.
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