Lately the Lord has really been convicting my heart of how much time I personally waste on social media. It probably will sound so cliche to say that 'media plays such a huge role in todays society' but man it is SO darn true. For some us like myself, we get so comfortable with technology/social media to the point where we no longer communicate face to face with one another but rather waste tons of time on the internet. Think about how many things could get done with the time we use on social media. Think about the sleep that you'd be getting in place of that. For some of you, lets face it it adds up.
Well as I mentioned for myself, it has really been convicting me. Its eaten so much of my devotional time, tons actually, that i could've used to spend time with my Savior, my Father. Ive been beating myself up about the fact that as a human I will never be able to give Jesus as much time as He gives me no matter how hard I try, and being distracted by social media does not help that at all.
At our most recent BLT (bridge leadership meeting) we read Ezekiel 34:1-24 and compared what a good shepherd looks like versus a bad shepherd. Here are a few of the things we came up with:
A good shepherd:
- walks with his sheep
- cleans his sheep
- is humble
- is patient
- is disciplined
- sacrifices for his sheep
- feeds his sheep
A baaad sheperd
- feeds himself and does not feed his sheep
- loses his sheep
- is selfish
- does not lead his sheep
- allows his sheep to become prey for wolves
For myself being in a leadership position this kind of hurt. It was sort of a wake up call like 'hey jess, how are you using your time?' Now lets have a disclaimer here: social media does not hurt everyone and everything; it has its benefits. But when we're living a life for Jesus, we ought to be using ALL the time we can for Him.
This week for school one one of our homework assignments was to read Warren Wierbe's 'On Being A Servant of God' chapter 23 and what do you know, guess what it was about? Being a worker for God.
So many good points in this chapter that were relevant to the topic of being a shepherd, or as the BLT ladies say 'shepherdesses'. Here are a few:
- 'God is seeking worshippers, and workers, and fruit bearers because God is seeking the lost.'
- (heres a great one) 'When there were only two sinners on this earth, God the Father interrupted His Sabbath rest to seek them and bring them back. (Gen. 3:8-9)
- 'If reaching sinners is so important to God, it ought o be important to us.'
- 'Something vanishes from our ministry when we lose our burden for lost souls. We gradually become professional Christian workers who do our job well, create no problems, but never have the blessing of seeing the gospel miracle take place in the lives of people.'
- 'The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.'
- 'Its good to win people for Christ where we don't live, but that's no substitute for winning people to Christ where we do live.'
- '...the shining begins at home.'
- 'If you have a burden to reach lost people right where you are, you'll probably have a burden o reach lost people everywhere in the world.'
- 'No matter what task God has called you to do, always remember that your ministry touches a whole world if you are truly serving the Lord.'
- 'Jesus said that the message of what Mary did would travel around the world! (See Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8)'
- 'One of the special joys in heaven will be meeting people we never met before, people who came to Christ because of our witness of ministry, and we knew nothing about it.'
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40
Now what in the heck does this all have to do with each other?
In wasting my time on social media, it replaced my devotional time with the Lord, which weakened me spiritually, causing me to fall back into anxiety. Causing me to become a bad shepherd. It made me weak and weary, causing my burden for His sheep to get lost. I focused on myself and the issue I essentially created by not being in my word. Folks ,yes we ought to attend to our needs but once our basic needs are met, the love of Christ ought to compel us to serve Gods sheep and bring them into His green pastures. Don't lose heart in serving, God sees it all, He sees the heartache we put aside to help those who are in greater need. And be reminded that we don't do it for man but for CHRIST JESUS.
Heres a great song I came across today. DISCLAIMER #2: No I am not inferring that the people we serve are our enemies lol but rather that when it gets hard to serve/shepherd our brothers and sisters that we would see them in which the way Christ does and that that would be what compels us to serve them.
Join me in striving to live a real life not a mediocre one, lets waste all of our time on Him!
"I want to waste it all on You
I want to pour my heart's perfume
I don't care if I'm called a fool
I'm wasting it all on You"
{Waste it all - Kim Walker Smith}
