We are all part of a big story about a God who created people with a plan for their good. The people rebelled and rejected God’s good plan for their lives. God made a way back to Himself through His Son’s perfect sacrifice that paid the price for our sin. When His Son comes back, everything will be made new again. Until then, we wait in a world that has turned its back on God and His good plan for us.
In this world, we are being sent messages all the time without realizing that they have an effect on us. They can come in the form of advertisements, music, television shows, social media, etc. These messages tell of what our culture defines as the good life or the way to find happiness. They tell of how we can rule our own kingdoms, get ahead, and be successful according to the world’s standards. These messages often get in the way of our relationship with God.
These messages aren’t new. The Bible is full of examples of false prophets giving information that would drive the people away from God. Jeremiah was a true prophet of God in a day where false prophets abounded.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. Jeremiah 23:16
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? Jeremiah 23:18
So what do we do?
1.) We first need to become aware of what God is telling us. God gave us the gift of His Word which tells the beautiful story; the life of Jesus that reveals God’s character to us in human flesh; and the Holy Spirit that helps us understand God’s Word and convicts us of sin to bring us back to God. God didn’t leave us here alone.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
2.) The second thing we need to become aware of are the types of messages that we are taking in. As you are watching television or listening to songs on the radio, ask yourself, “What is the message being sent?” Is the message telling you that you can find happiness if you would only buy this product? Is the message exploiting a fear in you? Is the message there to stir up your anger? What are they trying to get you to “buy” with the message being sent? The world is going to lie to us and we need to be on guard with the truth of God’s Word.
This blog post is the start to a series of blog posts where we will take a look at some of the world’s messages and then we will hold them up to God’s Word. Here are my challenges to you in this series:
1.) Start a Bible reading plan of some sort.
- It doesn’t have to be the Bible in a year but start a plan so you don’t have to wonder where you are reading in God’s Word everyday. The more we are in the Bible, the more we can recite the truth to ourselves and stay away from falsehoods.
2.) Start a journal and keep track of the messages coming at you everyday.
- Pray as you journal and tell God the feelings that are being evoked in you from the messages you are receiving. Are you prone to fear, anger, or habitual sin when you receive that message? Tell God, confess if you need to and then pay attention to where you are being tempted to feel these things.
3.) As you begin to notice which messages are the most harmful to you, seek truth in God’s Word.
- One really neat thing about the technology we have is being able to type a word or phrase into Bible Gateway and all the verses that have that word will pop up. If we are dealing with anger we can do a word search on anger, if we are dealing with fear, we can do a word search on fear. In this series, we will do just that. We will look at different cultural messages and filter them through God’s Word.
4.) E-mail or message me if you have a message that you would like to review in an upcoming blog post.
- New posts will come out on Mondays throughout the summer.