“I’m on a technology overload.  Inundated with information that is inapplicable to the vast majority of my life.  I check my Facebook profile 22 times a day with the hopes of a red button notifying me of my importance to someone.  Most times there isn’t a response to my status update and my status diminishes a few notches in response.”

Sound familiar at all? How much time do you spend on Facebook? Or Youtube? Or texting? Or watching ESPN? How much joy and fulfillment do you receive from it? What about Twitter?

Now, these things we find in social media and entertainment—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Movies, TV—are not inherently bad. They are perfectly fine for us to engage in.

However, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, “Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial.” We as a culture [not just America but even the American Church], unfortunately, have turned them into objects of obsession and idolatry.

So much to the point where I daresay it is a level of downright whoredom.

Noise! Noise! Noise!

This becomes our source of satisfaction.

The quick doses of Facebook notifications, Tweets, and TV provide the sustenance we crave. It feeds our souls and fills our hearts as we become enslaved to it. We return again and again, hour after hour to be reminded of our worth in the form of a numbered red button.

Our minds become filled with trash, which bleeds over into our thoughts. We then daydream over these things instead of the incessant prayer we are to have with the Father. And now when we try to pray, our hearts are invaded by distraction. Silence before the Lord is difficult.

Noise. Distractions. More noise.

It’s no wonder we have trouble hearing the Holy Spirit. And it’s no wonder the American Church is dying.

Is Jesus Worth It?

So, what now?

Well, here’s the question: Is Jesus worth it? Think about it. Is He truly worth it?

At the end of the day, it’s all about Jesus [Surprise! Yay Sunday School answer!].

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Philippians 3:7-8

If we treasure him as Paul does, we will do whatever we possibly can to receive more of Him. If Jesus is truly our treasure, we will eagerly surrender everything, at whatever cost, so that we may attain deeper intimacy with Him.

A decrease in social media and entertainment [and anything not of Him] leads to an increase of Jesus—in our minds, hearts, and lives. It’s a simple concept, really.

We cannot choose both the world and Jesus Christ. We cannot fill ourselves with both the Holy Spirit and the desires of the flesh. It is either one or the other.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

Matthew 6:24

If you are lord of your life, you will seek to please yourself. If Christ is Lord over your life, then you will do the things that please Him. Everything—absolutely everything—will be filtered through the lens of the Gospel, so that He may increase and receive greater glory.

Seek Him with complete abandonment. Pursue Him with desperation. Pray, fast [shameless plug for the 21-Day Media Fast!], and press into Jesus! Uproot the things that do not bear witness to Christ so that you may fill yourself with more of Him.

As we do so, Jesus promises to reveal more of Himself to us.

” ‘Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’ ”

John 14: 21-23