Spiritual Output
The Lord who made you and helps you says:
Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant,
O dear Israel,[a] my chosen one.
For I will pour out water to quench your thirst
and to irrigate your parched fields.
And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
and my blessing on your children.
They will thrive like watered grass,
like willows on a riverbank. Isaiah 44:2-4
Today’s devotion is about social media. Life is filled with lots of things. Ideally, it is focused on family and friends. For me, my wife, children, grandchildren, friends, mom, and brothers fill a significant part of it. But there is this part of us that for some has become an obsession. It of course is called social media. My thought is there is nothing wrong with social media as it by itself is not the problem. However, it is very much like money. It all depends on how you use it. Thus, I have a rule about what I take in from it. A wise pastor of a church once told me that whatever is in you will eventually spill out of you. That is one of the greatest truths in life that I have lived by ever. Thus, whenever I hear news that is overwhelming negative or toxic continuously, I shut it down. If someone is always critical of others, I begin to back away. I am not saying we should turn a blind eye to things that impact our life that need to be addressed or information that shows something needs to be corrected. What I am saying is when you find yourself angry, showing hatred toward others, or in a foul mood on a consistent basis, something must change, and it starts with you. In almost all of those negative outcomes, there is a wave of negative intake, and it must be addressed. It sounds cruel to distance or unfollow a loved one, but if I have made your perspective known and they choose not to change, I ultimately must decide should they stay in the circle or not because what comes into me will eventually impact what comes out.
The more you allow God to pour into you, the more His spirit will pour out into others. My mind focused on the idea of what God pours into us. This is a bit different from when God blesses us such as the gift of His grace or provisions for our livelihood. When we are reading His word, we gain clarity into what a Christ driven life looks like. It is the knowledge of His teaching and learning of His perspective that becomes a part of our way of life. That is the water He ‘pours’ into us. I love the words of these verses for it illustrates how what goes in ultimately comes out. For health buffs, they talk constantly about what you put into your body is what your body produces. Along those lines, what information you put into your system will be what you put out. When take in God is put into your mind, His Spirit is what you breathe out into the world. Likewise, if you put worldly things into your system, you know how bad those things are, and your mind, body, and ultimately soul suffer the consequences from it. It is why our intake is so vital to our spiritual wellbeing, and it has implications for those who surround us. It does not make us better. It does make us better able to serve God’s will for our lives.
Learning to tune into God helps us overcome the intake of things that are not good for us. Jesus spoke of living water saying, “Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” (John 7:38) The more we take in of God’s teachings and lessons, the greater our resistance to take in or reject those things that are not good. That is why we should be careful about what we take in particularly through social media. Set parameters and gauge how you are in those moments where things do not feel quite right and pray on it! Let us continually focus on our intake of information to ensure we are filled with God’s wants. How can your intake more of God’s teachings? What do you need to ‘prune’ out of your media intake to better increase your spiritual output? My prayer is that we take in Christ fully so that we can increase our spiritual output. Amen