19 August 2012

For the Glory of Me?

I find myself so often catching my thoughts wandering to comparison. I start questioning my voice and putting other voices on pedestals.  I have to take their voice off of the pedestal, take mine off of wherever I've placed it, and put Christ back where He belongs - receiving all glory.



I've been hearing a lot of chatter lately from a lot of places about the pitfalls of social media. And I agree. It's a dangerous place to be maybe because it's akin to high school - comparison of people who are all insecure but putting up a front.



So what do we do?

Do we leave the Internet forever?

A friend of mine describes facebook as the devil's playground which makes me want to throw up. 

Not because I disagree - because I do agree - but because everything in the entire world is the devil's playground

The earth is his playground.

This is his territory.

If we let one thing become his (as in we decide in our mind that if only we get rid of that one thing then our sin issue will be gone), we've forgotten that he has a sense of dominion here.

I saw this video this week and it hasn't left my mind all week.

When I'm on facebook and twitter, I have the opportunity to fight the devil with the truth which is the Word of God and the fact that Jesus is the only way to salvation. I can share scripture accurately and truth wisely.







If we forget that Jesus said in this world you will have trouble we've forgotten something important.

It's even worst if we forget the next line but take heart, I have overtaken the world.

Jesus is always in control.

He is always our refuge.

He is always our peace.

He is the solution.

He offers the way out of temptation.

So for me, I do heart checks all the time. I consider deleting facebook and twitter and this blog and all sorts of things that seem to be areas of destruction at times. 

I have to go to Jesus and put Him back on His rightful throne.

He's in charge.

Everything I say and think and type and do is for His glory.

It's not for my glory.

Oh Jesus, help me to never forget that. 

I forget to give Him glory often.
I sin often.
I make a lot of mistakes.
I have to run to His grace more than I thought I would ever have to. 



We have opportunity in everything to give honour to God.

We have opportunity in everything to live out the Gospel - the good news that Christ died for all sinners. 

His death led to His resurrection which leads to the opportunity for all to call upon His name for salvation from an eternity without Him and redemption from all their sins.

We can't blame our sins on technology.

When I sin, I sin. It's my deceitful heart that chooses pride, that chooses anger, that chooses to covet, that chooses to put my trust in myself.

My twitter feed, my facebook, my youtube, etc. - none of those things are the sin.

The sin is what I do with the things that are placed in front of me.

I made a choice a while ago. It's a choice that I sometimes fall astray of but try to live by.

The choice:

My twitter, my facebook, and this blog - they're for Jesus. They're each and always for the spreading of His Gospel. 

But I do still try to be funny because well sometimes I'm funny.
And I don't think Jesus was against having fun.
He wants our hearts.

And I still follow people who don't love Jesus because the Jesus I worship spent a lot of time with prostitutes, tax collectors, and the like.

But beyond my moments when I post the randoms, I'm looking for opportunity to encourage, to disciple, to speak wisdom, and to share truth.

Twitter has given me opportunity to pray for strangers. Tweets of strangers have pushed me to read scripture more and I have finally started reading the Bible daily.

My pride still creeps up because my pride is gross.

My fear of man issues still show up because Jesus and I are still making progress there. I also know that I'll be tempted to fear what people think about me because that's an area the devil knows I struggle. 

Satan will always place things in front of me that cause me to doubt and question who my trust is in.

Sometimes I listen to sad music to foster the sadness I want to feel in that moment. That's a sin.

Sometimes I'll fill my time with friends and pour into their lives so I can avoid thinking/praying/wrestling about and with the areas that Jesus is desiring to work in my life. That's a sin too.

Sometimes I think I'm better than someone because I don't do enter whatever it is I've decided is worse than whatever I fill my time with. That's sin.

Sometimes I look at photos on facebook and feel anger and resentment towards friends because they forgot to invite me, or I was busy, or enter the excuse I have for my anger and resentment. That's a sin.

Sad music, busyness, other peoples issues, and my facebook aren't sin.

My heart's choices are the sin. 
My actions, my responses - they're all the sin.

Jesus is the remedy.

Because there is always room for escape

See, if I tweeted everything I type into that little tweet box, oh man - there's be thousands more than I've ever tweeted. Grace causes me to stop often and question what I'm writing.

Nadine, is that life giving?
Nadine, who are you trying to be right now?
Nadine, whose glory are you attempting to show?

Discretion is something I'm constantly praying for. It's on my wish list.

Discretion stops me right before I hit tweet and publish and post and send and so much more. Sweet discretion stops me in my tracks and points me towards Jesus and asks: Did Jesus pay it all so that you could write that?

Though I fail often, my hearts desire is to have a discretion ruled heart that loves Jesus even more than I do now. A heart that lives in such a way that Jesus gets glory in each moment of what I do.

I want lots of glory. I'm super selfish and prideful. But more than that I want Jesus to get glory.

So now what? What do I do now?

For me, for this day, I'll staying plugged in online.

I want to use social media as a ministry. A ministry to give glory to God and to show people the love and care that is Jesus.

This post has been in draft for weeks. Apparently today is the day to hit publish.