Facebook = Holiness?
The other night I did something I don’t normally do. I stalked people on Facebook. I was listening to a podcast and my eyes started getting bored. So, I jumped on Facebook. I typically stay away from Facebook creeping as times in past I would get discouraged. I would see where people are struggling with family members or at work. I would see lifestyle patterns that were doomed for disaster. I would see choices being made that would cause someone to go in the opposite direction of where God was calling them. Therefore, I do not do much Facebook creeping.
I can not speak for every one of the examples above in the same measure but there was a common thought in what I believed I was seeing;
1. Are these people daily drawing near to God?
2. Were they daily experiencing the fullness of God in their life?
The lifestyle choices that were being made? Were they aligning themselves to receive all that God had? I wondered, when some people go into their prayer room, do they experience God?
For some, the answer maybe yes and for others, no. But why?
It is almost as if God is not “near” to them when the Bible says, “Draw nearer to me and I will draw nearer to you” (James 4:8). Why is God seemingly so far away when we try to seek after Him? You have heard, sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2)? It is not that God has separated from us, it is, we have allowed ourselves to become separated from Him! We have allowed sin to crouch into our lives and take captive areas that will hinder our ability to have a deeper relationship with God.
God desires to be with you. No amount of sin can stop Him from loving you any more or any less. When we give our lives to Jesus and choose to live for Him, then we need to understand what that means and allow ourselves to live for Him in every facet of our lifestyle.
I am sure that God is wanting you to live a holy life. You may hear people say, “Oh they are just too good, or maybe, that person just wants to look like a Christian but they really aren’t.” Don’t worry about what people say. God is not going to hold you accountable about the opinion of someone else who does not know. God is wanting to have a relationship with you! He is going to get this in your daily fellowship; by drawing near to Him.
Several years back, we actually had people come to my parents and tell them, “You have set such high standards, there is no way we can ever achieve them. You set the bar at a place we do not feel we can get.” I laughed when I heard this and then my heart broke when I thought about it. People were willing to compromise because they didn’t “feel” they could reach that same level. The answer why they feel this way? As I mentioned before, they have distanced themselves from God, therefore they do not sense God’s presence day by day.
This week, I am going to ask that you take thirty-minutes a day, four different days and draw nearer to God. Take time and focus on developing your relationship with Him. Spend time praying and reading the Bible but be sure that it is uninterrupted time. Turn your phone/ipad/computer or whatever other distraction that you have off and walk into a place where you will not be distracted; with your bible, pen and paper, and go in with an expectancy to hear God’s prompting in your life.
When you start surfing facebook, you are going to find out real quick why facebook does not = holiness. Don’t let the devil lie to you and tell you that you can spend all this time on facebook searching people and creeping on them (not saying facebook is bad all the time), the devil will use facebook and other platforms to distract you from seeking after God. This distraction will quickly cause you to be distracted in other arenas of your life and then you find yourself going two weeks then three weeks and you have not even spent time with Jesus.
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