Where are you looking for God?
I've been challenged over the past year of how I'm living my life, and my faith.
Am I only feeling God's presence when I'm listening to Christian music, or saving bible verses to my phone to set as backgrounds? Is reading the blog posts on here, and other Christian forums where I'm getting my dose of faith? Is my quick prayer to God in the moments that I need a little extra, or the bible verses I post as my status on Facebook, or as my caption or bio on Instagram where I convince myself and others of my belief?
In our life, it is so normalised to live so many aspects of your life through the apps on our phone, and the various websites we are a part of. It's a platform for our opinions and ideas and thoughts and feelings.
It's also a place where we are most influenced. Our thinking is challenged, but in a way where it is very easy to be influenced. Things we used to find inappropriate or wrong, become normalised and acceptable.
"Oh, it's part of life; this is 2015! We don't have to be confined by the traditions and rules of the past."
YES. TRUE. But where have you drawn the line?
Are you modernising the Bible to what you want to believe?
Where have you placed God:
Have you put Him in Church, in your Christian music, in your Bible, in your prayer times?
And, have you left Him there?
God is not another that we can confine to certain areas of our life.
We leave Him out of our social lives; Social Media is our space, we have made it a platform for our promotion.
But sometimes I get this sudden realisation that not every one of my friends will end up in heaven with me. Instead, they will be in hell, forever.
WHAT.
That scares me. It should scare all of us into an urgency to use all we can to challenge others to question the life they are living, and find the one who gave us this life.
I started this post off aiming to question the various areas we are searching for validation of our faith, and the places we are looking to find God, but I seem to have strayed from that slightly. So here's to veering back towards that:
Something that humans look for is validation. Ask anyone, and you'll find out that somewhere along their journey, they have sought for acceptance, confirmation, affirmation. Our number of followers on Tumblr, Instagram; our likes on Facebook, our views on Snapchat; all a source of validation of ourselves, but only for a moment.
The validation of who we are that lasts forever, comes only from one thing, and that is God.
Only God.
Whenever I need to 'get a dose of Jesus' I go outside, into the hills, fields, around His natural creation. Yet I spend hours inside, on my phone, on tv, on so many things where God isn't.
Why?
It's more comfortable for us to delve into things we know rather than a God who is so powerful.
I know how to edit a photo, upload it, write a quirky caption, and how to get likes.
I don't know where god is taking me with my life, or what he wants me to do.
God knows us inside and out and outside and in. Basically, He knows so so so much about us, our lives, who we are truly and that is scary.
Online, we can make ourselves be the people we want to be.
I want to be known as a carefree spirit, only sharing positivity and creativity. But that's only part of me. I don't want to share my days where I feel ugly, and sick, and down and just plain crap.
Online, I can portray the side of me I want to be known as. And not many people know the other side.
However, God does. The affirmation we so desperately long for can be found so easily in one source yet we continue to search and spend time on a variety of social media looking for that one thing that's right there in front of us; in God.
I guess what I'm challenging is where are you turning to, to distract yourself from God.
Where is it that you choose to lose yourself in to block out the little voice that encourages you to pursue Him?
What can you change about your daily life, to find Him and in turn, find yourself?
Here are some verses I find particularly relevant to this:
I set my heart and mind on things above, not earthly things. This gives me peace. Colossians 3:1-2
I guard my heart because it determines the course of my life. Proverbs 4:23
As I lose my life for Jesus’ sake, I find it. Matthew 10:39
I experience true life when I deny myself, turn from my selfish ways and follow Jesus. Matthew 16:24-25
Turn your face from your screen, and to the God who holds more light than your LED iPhone.
