Faith's Challenge

     It is currently 4:30 in the morning for me and I am wide awake.  I feel like I've been sleeping for too long.  The Lord gave me a warning a long time ago with a simple phrase, and that phrase has come to roost in my life as well as in the life of the rest of the world.  The phrase that the Lord gave me was, "entertained to death."  When I first heard or felt this phrase I immediately was enraged by it and became a critic of every person who watched tv, listened to secular music, played video games for hours a day, screamed like maniacs over a sports team, or read romance novels.   I was devestated by my own lifestyle which included many of these things, but as the days rolled by I became like a seed that sprouted up and then died quickly.   As I sit here writing this today, I am hit with this similar headline:  Christiana dying for entertainment.

     Last night I watched a show that I hadn't watched in a long time. It was interesting to me because of the bibilical themes and interesting mystical features, but I had overlooked a major factor. This show portrayed evil as good and good as evil.  I found myself rooting for sins!  This may not seem like a major fail, but for a Christian it is.  Tv shows, music, and the like are all the results of someone's imagination, and when we lend our minds to other people's imaginations we  open ourselves up to whatever they have opened themselves up to in order to create what we are entertaining ourselves with.  Sometimes this can be a wonderful thing like when a song speaks so much truth that it makes you cry and assures you that you are not alone in the world.  Other times our entertainment choices can have us forgetting who we are as we say things that we wouldn't normally say and start thinking things that we wouldn't normally think. 

     I beg you to be careful what you look at and think.  The Bible says to think on (meditate on) things that are true, honest, lovely, just, pure, and of good report (Phillipians 4:8).  The Bible also says that we should take every thought captive and make it submit to the Word of God (see 2 Corinthians 10:5). Why is it so important that we control our thinking?  "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he" Proverbs 23:7.  When we lend eyes we also lend our minds to entertainment, and we need to ask ourselves what are we thinking.  I don't mean in a condescending way, but in a research way.  Literally ask the questions," why did I pick this?  What makes me want to do this, watch this, listen to this?"  Should we dare to even ask the question, "what does the Word of God have to say about this?"  I am so thankful that God allowed me to see what I was entertaining myself with from his perspective and it was wicked.  For those of you who never looked up the definition of wicked, the word doesn't mean evil.  Wicked means backwards.  I have been entertaining myself with backwards ideas and imagery.  Lord have mercy. The scary part is that what starts as thoughts, as ideas, as imagery can become words and then reality.   Mathew 5 gives a good example straight from the mouth of Jesus, "27Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." This makes the case against pornography and sexual content.  Let's be mindful of what we place in front of our eyes and how it affects our thinking. 
 

      Please be careful what you say even if you are just repeating what a show or a song has said!!! As a christian the Bible says that life and death are in my tongue (see Proverbs 18:21).  This means that I have to be careful what I say because my words can shape my world.  I have been careless in the past with my words and seen the results so quickly that it scared me.  Bad things have happened just the way that I said that they would with no other explination than that I spoke it. 

       The Lord showed me that my entertainment is a window that sometimes lets thoughts in that I otherwise would reject and therefore gives the enemy room in my home.  Unfortunately I've been so busy trying to escape my stress that I didn't bother to stop and see how not only I but my family have been overtaken by entertainment.  My children cry for television, my husband is constantly looking at his phone, and I have missed meals to binge watch Netflix.  This is a horrer to me, but as I talk with other people it seems to currently be the human condition for those living in first world countries.  We are indeed entertaining ourselves to death with death.  Entertainment has become our idol, and we have been unapologetic.

      Fortunately I have a God who has loved me enough to show me my mess and offer me a solution, himself.  It was never meant for Christians to lament life and walk around scowling and miserable until Jesus comes back for us.  God wants us to enjoy our lives, and he tells us where we should find our joy and our entertainment.  "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I way Rejoice" Phillippians 4:4.  "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he  shall give thee the desires of thine heart" Psalm 37:4. It begs asking, how do we delight in the Lord?  The best answer that I have gotten is by taking is word into the world and watching as God fulfills every promise.

     What if every morning we prayed and read our Bibles and then the whole day declared the word the of God around us and waited to see 's what would happen with expectation?  Because God's word is true, we would see results and what was a drearly life that we were escaping from with entertainment would become the game of life to which we were garaunteed a win.  We are supposed to be going from faith to faith (see Romans 1:17)and glory to glory(see 2 Corinthians 3:18).  This game of real life has been rigged for us to win if we would just play the cards that God has placed in our hands.  The world should be marvelling at the people of God, but instead we are too busy marvelling at the world to marvel at God the creator of all things.  Let's get back to being the light of the world.  Let's get back to being a peculiar people.  Let's spend our time showing ourselves and the world the power of God in our lives.  When we really take hold of the Word of God and apply it to every situation, the works of the enemy and the band aid solutions of the world seem laughable. The goal of God for us is abundant life, and we should be living it up.

I called this a faith challenge and here it is.  I challenge myself (and anyone who wants to take on the task with me) to delete all of my entertainment apps from my phone, turn off my radio, and stop watching tv,movies, and youtube videos, or playing video games for 1 week.  In place of this I choose to prayerfully take a scripture and intentionally apply it to my day and make note of what happens.  I expect miracles, blessings, healings, and reconciliations.  If you think this is too easy than do it.  Leave notes in the comments about what scriptures you are applying and what's happening.  I will too.  Remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength (see Nehemiah 8:10).

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race ths is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2