Technology Idolatry 

So I went home and watched tv today and spent all afternoon not focused on God and then I felt so bad and started praying and I really feel like God just laid this on my heart tonight, like I feel the holy ghost right now haha

In the bible, it talks so much about idolatry. To God, it is a serious thing. When the isrealites made a gold calf and worshipped it, God forgave them but He plagued them.  When the isrealites were sinning, they were usually worshipping idols. Why is that? It seems like they were always putting something in front of God, making it more important than Him and that was a huge thing back then and always received great punishment. And it may not be happening in the same exact way now because we don’t really tend to make a random animal out of wood and then worship it saying “you made me” but an idol doesn’t have to be a false God. It can be anything that you make more important than God. And if you think about it, we kind of do make idols all the time, out of metal actually. Metal and plastic and glass. That little device in your hand can very easily become an idol if you’re not careful.

Technology has become such a huge part of our everyday lives and if we aren’t careful, we can make it more important than God. And you say to yourself, no that’s not me, technology will never be more important than God to me and that may be true but think about it, how many of us will go home, sit down and “relax” and get on facebook, instagram, twitter, etc. And we’ll feel that tug from God saying “come spend time with me”. But, we shrug it off and say, “hold on God”, I will after I look up this, or after I watch this. Is that not idolatry? You’re making that bit of social media or television more desirable, more important than God! I’m guilty of it too, but God hates that.

Exodus 20:4-5 says Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

God wants all the attention. When you start to put things before Him, He starts to get jealous. He doesn’t want to be second or have to work for your attention. He is a jealous God.

I’ll find myself sitting in class, excited to go home and rest. But I’ve noticed that after I get home and “rested” by watching TV or getting on social media for a while, it didn’t give me rest at all, it actually made me even more tired! But the afternoons where I have gone home and spent it in prayer, and fasting, and studying, those are the afternoons where I feel so relaxed and rested.

Now take a moment and imagine your life without the noise of technology, without the distractions of social media, without tv. Imagine how much closer to God you would be, how much more time you would spend with Him if you didn’t have all that technology. Technology is my biggest weakness. I think for a lot of people it’s our biggest weakness. All I know is that God wants to be heard over the noise of this technology that keeps getting louder every day but so many of us tend to tune Him out with technology, maybe not on purpose but that’s what we’re doing. I feel like God is trying to get our attention but we’re so focused on how many likes we’re getting on Facebook, how many hearts we’re getting on instagram, and how many retweets on twitter that we don’t even notice the powerful things God is trying to achieve in our lives, the calling that God is trying to reveal to us, that can only come through spending time with Him in His word and in prayer and in worship. You can’t grow in your relationship with God if you’re giving all your spare time to social media and movies and shows and not to the word of God.