My lovely wife and I do not have cellphones, our one phone is a land line that sits in a cradle, instead of hanging on the wall as it did for many years. When I mention this to people, almost invariably their response is something akin to, “Oh, that would be nice,” but when I ask them why they do not throw that cellphone away and go back to what was the standard for many decades, that land line, they offer me reasons, and nearly every single time I reveal to them that their reasons are not viable, but simply excuses.
At times their faces remind me of the drunk when he has been told the liquor store does not open for another hour.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
Addiction my friends, no matter what that addiction is, is a step away from God, it is a need that the Lord will not fill, and so we turn from Him and find comfort in the arms of another, and if that something is not of God, it is of the world, and thereby by the design of our adversary.
I will not offer you page after page of those supposed reasons why you need, so to speak, that cellular phone, nor any the examples that could easily refute those reasons as excuses, it is your decision, my wonderful wife and I made our decision years ago, but I believe I can profess one truth from that device, one of those needs you would call a justifiable reason, and it is that you want to stay connected. And connected to what?
Why, the world of course, you want to stay on top of things, you want to stay informed and entertained. But you will in no way call it being conformed to the world, will you?
I ask you, how has that device assisted you in the second part of Romans 12:2? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” How has it enabled you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind?
Now, be honest with yourself, those verses you may look up occasionally on it, the videos you may watch that lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God, if you were to count the minutes spent in those worthy endeavors, how would they relate to the time you spend on it searching for the things of the world?
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7)
What are you reaping, that which you sow, that which you spend the most time searching for is what you are reaping.
There is no debating this point, what you spend your time on is where your heart is.
The cattle, the brute beasts, have believed the deception that their cellular phone is a necessary item, that without it they will be lost, that they will not fit in with society. I have received these same excuses, the same “deer in the headlights” stares from just as many of those who have been born-again as those who do not serve the Savior when I say to them, “Throw it away.” I might as well have asked them to cut their own arm off.
The need to stay connected with family and friends, with the world and the way it is going, but of little if any value whatsoever for your edification, for your sanctification, for growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. And yes, I have heard that one also, nearly every time. “I have a Bible app on my phone.”
Did you know that you can do a search on your phone, desktop or laptop, to see the exact amount of time that you spend on a certain app?
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1st Cor. 11:31)
Why don’t you do that, do a search of where you spend most of your time online at, and reveal to yourself where your heart lies.
