Beat Social Mediaናሙና

After all this learning and thinking, what are we supposed to do about it? Encouraging all Christians to completely abandon all forms of social media would be ambitious at best, but that is not what I mean to do. There is good that happens there. It provides opportunities to share Truth and encouragement to those who need it most. Others who haven’t read this devotional will still look to satisfy their need for adoration, companionship, and a fill for their void on social media––they watch as their time is stolen from them. Maybe we can help direct them to what they actually need by meeting them where they are.

No, I am not telling you to drop all social media. I would like to encourage you to limit yourself, though. If it’s something you struggle with idolizing (or simply giving too much time to), I want to encourage you to make a decision to change that. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says His followers must hate their family to truly follow Him (to demonstrate how our love for Jesus must come first in our lives). If we are to put Christ before our even families, how much more should we put him before something frivolous like social media.

In Ephesians 4, Paul encourages the Ephesian church to avoid falling into the same traps the Gentiles did. In our case, I think this correlates to sinning and without remorse like many non-believers do (and many believers, if we’re honest). If social media is an idol, we should do what he says in verse 22: “throw off [our] old sinful nature and [our] former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception,” (NLT). But Paul doesn’t stop there.

“Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes,” (v. 23). It’s not enough just to remove the bad; we have to replace it with good. But in order to have room for the good, a little spring cleaning of the heart might be just what we need.

As this relates to social media, there are resources to help you. Visit https://sevenminutesolution.com for a sneak peek of John Brandon’s book The 7-Minute Productivity Solution which will launch in January 2022. To learn more about his social media challenge, visit this link. It just might change your life.