Beat Social MediaSýnishorn

Who doesn’t like a nice, “Well done!” or “Your work is amazing!”? Honestly, no matter how uncomfortable it might make some of us (myself included), we appreciate words of affirmation––praise. The Bible tells us God likes to be praised––in fact, he demands it (Deut. 10:12-13). As we are made in the image of God, it’s no surprise we seek it, too.

The issue is when we seek it in the wrong places. It’s one thing to confide in friends about insecurities or other struggles, seeking encouragement. The church should be encouraging each other as should any kind of friend. That’s good. It’s another thing to turn to the masses for the encouraging word we crave from a friend. This is what happens on social media.

Much of what we post is putting our character out there to be judged, just hoping the judge says we are good. Sometimes we are seeking approval of who and what we are. This is what Jesus warned about in Luke 11:43 when he talked about praying like the Pharisees. The issue isn’t that they prayed in front of people, but it was about their hearts. They desperately wanted people to see them as pious. They craved the people’s admiration enough to use a sacred act of communicating with the King of the universe (prayer) for their own purposes.

Other times, we seek approval on what we do and how well we do it. In Matthew 6:1-6, Jesus warns against this. The good that we do and how well we do it (or anything else) shouldn’t be done or publicized to receive praise for it. Jesus said to do good things in secret and that if you receive praise for it on earth, you’ve received all the reward to will from those good things. How much more precious is a heavenly reward you can treasure for all eternity than a few kind words here that perish in a moment?

That said, it’s so hard to keep this mindset. It’s easy to be distracted and it’s easy to let our insecurities and discouragement get the best of us. It’s okay to look for encouragement. Just make sure you’re doing it in the right place. When that place is social media, it turns into an obsession with likes and kind comments. Instead of becoming obsessed with people’s praise, let’s become obsessed with God’s.