5/5/2025
How do you deal with all the unrest perpetuated by social media? There are comments that are unkind or condemning. There are political rants that are harsh. There is incivility and rudeness. There are falsehoods and lies.
Social media may have good features, but its flood of information and opinions can threaten to overwhelm. When that occurs, intentionally step away from social media and turn your attention to God to find rest. Carve out time in your life to listen to words of Scripture to cultivate a spirit of non-anxiousness and peacefulness within you.
When you’re burdened by upsets, stress, exhaustion, Scripture can remind you to rest in the Lord. David, whose life was filled with hardship as Saul hunted and tried to kill him, gave his troubles to God. He declared:
I call out to the Lord. He answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep. I wake up again, because the Lord takes care of me. I won’t be afraid even though tens of thousands attack me on every side. Psalm 3:4-6 (NIRV)
One way to cultivate rest in the Lord is to take mini-breaks from social media, for example, turning off notifications at a certain point in the day or not checking social media on certain days. Find a practice that genuinely helps you and comes from your heart.
Social media can be redeemed. You can be a person of peace in your posts and tweets. You can post things that are uplifting and encouraging, giving your friends and followers a breather in an otherwise deafening digital space.
When it comes to social media, keep your attention focused on the Lord. Paul writes:
Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. Philippians 4:7-8 (CEB)
Instead of being consumed by social media, find rest by reading your Bible and journaling your prayers. Spend time in nature. Have meaningful conversation with a caring friend. Play a song that reorients your heart toward Christ.
Despite the constant stream of content from social media, you can find rest and peace in God.
-Michael
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5/12/2025
Technology. It’s used by all of us. It can be used wrongly when not employed in ways that are consistent with the life and person of Christ. It can be used rightly and meaningfully in shaping people into the kind of persons whose being and doing are consistent with the life and person of Christ.
Here are some online technological tools that may help people deepen in their relationship with Christ:
YouVersion
BibleProject
Read Scripture
Lectio 365
Our Daily Bread
BibleGateway
Blue Letter Bible
RightNow Media
Here’s a prayer as we seek to live in a God-honoring way in an increasingly technological world:
Lord God, you are the maker of the heavens and earth and of all that is in them, seen and unseen.
In this world you placed us, according to your loving purposes, and instilled in us the desires and skills to make and create.
Yet our technologies are beset with our human strengths and weaknesses filling us with both wondrous awe and deep anxiousness.
Lord, let us always use our technological skills in the loving service of you and through that service seek the wellbeing of our neighbors.
Let the skills and knowledge we develop be tempered by faith, hope, and love, not driven by pride, self-interest, and idols that turn our faces away from you, Lord.
Teach us to use our technology with patience, kindness, humility, and truthfulness, being slow to anger and not delighting in the suffering of others.
Remind us, Lord, that these human things will ultimately pass away and that which remains will be grounded in your love and hope.
Draw our eyes to the future your hope provides, of a world redeemed and ordered by your power, love, and grace.
Let that vision shape all our creative activities in every aspect of our lives leading us to wise, ethical agency in the service of your kingdom.
In all our technological endeavors may we continue to worship and glorify you, Lord.
And, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be present in all our works for the glory of your name and your kingdom now and forever more. Amen.
-Michael
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5/19/2025
Brennan Manning wrote: “We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he would bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.” Are you astonished by this? Do you at times find yourself questioning the goodness of God, wondering how God could really love someone like you?
The “how” of God loving is determined by the “who” that God is. Holy Scripture is clear: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The word “love” here means “unconditional commitment to seek the best for another.” This is not just what God does—it is who God is. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more or less than God already does.
Jim Denison says that if we really believed God loves us without qualification:
We wouldn’t try to earn his forgiveness by punishing ourselves. We would believe that our Father forgives all we confess (1 John 1:9) and then separates our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). As it is, we often punish ourselves for sins God will not punish through self-inflicted discouragement and even self-harm.
We wouldn’t try to excuse our failures so as to minimize our need for forgiveness. As C.S. Lewis said, the worse our excuses, the more they contribute to the problem by adding deceit to our other failures.
We wouldn’t be tempted by a transactional faith that seeks to earn God’s favor through religious activities and good deeds. Rather, we would serve because we are loved, not so we will be loved. We would give because we have received, not so we will receive.
We would love and serve others whether they love and serve us or not since we are secure in the fact that we are unconditionally loved by the God of the universe.
-Michael