July 18
“For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:14-17)
Yesterday we talked about how important it is to set boundaries for ourselves when we decide we want to watch something or explore something on the internet. This is because it is so very easy to go from one show to another, from one thread of curiosity to another, and before we know it we have at minimum wasted a lot of time or even stumbled into exposing our minds to immorality and other evil things. This of course is just the opposite of the kinds of things we want to be doing as Christians, but with the availability of so much media on the internet, it is easy to get sucked in, and before you know it, our flesh is in control and not the Spirit.
As we discussed, it is early on, even before we decide to get on Netflix or Pinterest or whatever it is that consumes us and makes us stumble, where the battle is often one or lost, at least in my experience. During these early decisions, the Holy Spirit may be trying to warn us, trying to remind us of all the other things we could be doing that would actually help us and make our lives easier and better and richer, or He may be suggesting we pray and spend time in the Word, or He may be trying to warn us about the dangers that we know are lurking for us and our lack of self-control. But how often do we listen? When the flesh starts getting a say, we will not listen. We will turn a deaf ear and tune out our consciences altogether. We will ignore the warnings and quench the Spirit.
The truth is, very few if any of our hours spent entertaining ourselves will amount to anything in eternity. It will almost all burn up and be loss for us, and embarrassment for us before our Lord and King. We need to have such a hunger for Christ that we choose to spend time with Him rather than choose to spend our hours entertaining ourselves. We need to decide to get to bed early so we can wake up early and spend time in the Word and pray for all of those burdens and breakthroughs that are so important for us. Who do you know that needs to come to Christ for salvation? What are those great works that you would like to accomplish for Christ? Who is suffering and in need of your help? What about those who are being persecuted for Christ, or those who are in bondage in human trafficking? What major projects are you working on where you need breakthroughs and major progress, or what broken relationships do you have that desperately need healing? How will spending time on the internet entertaining yourself help any of these things? How will it please your Lord or benefit you at all in eternity?
These are the kinds of questions each of us should be asking ourselves before we even spend one minute watching programs or searching things on the internet. This is the best way we can replace fleshly thoughts with spiritual thoughts is to early on decide not get on the internet in the first place. To be continued….