Does the thought of choosing God over your phone make you shiver a little? It definitely does that for me.
Thinking about detaching from the tiny device always in my hand frightens me. But what frightens me even more is what happens if I don’t.
If you’ve been here before, you know sugar is a struggle I talk about a lot. It’s one of those unnecessary idols keeping me from the true beauty of full dependence on God.
As I’m currently working through the yearly 40-day Sugar Fast with Wendy Speake, it never ceases to amaze me how many other idols I use in the same way as sugar. Today she brought up the possibility of releasing our phones alongside our sweet crutches for the remainder of this fast.
“Our smartphones can keep us connected to the world, but they can’t keep us connected to Christ… This fast isn’t simply about cutting out sugar; it’s about abstaining from anything and everything we’ve learned to run to time and again.”
-Wendy Speake
My phone and my sugar habit actually seem to come from the same place—reaching for comfort, control, or distraction instead of God.
I’ve done this particular sugar fast for the past 6 years and honestly, the device release can be more of a struggle than my sweet treats! Technology in the palm of my hand so easily linking me to the outside world is something I run to far too often.
Wendy leads us to Psalm 81 warning the Israelites to stay away from other gods. But as in so many of the Old Testament stories, they did not listen…
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
-Psalm 81:12 NIV (emphasis added)
Before any Bible scholars come at me, I understand they were not toting around phones and iPads all day like us. But the message still lands in our current culture.
Our stubborn hearts choose scrolling over a meaningful stroll with Him.
We find worth in social media “likes” instead of His unconditional love. We complain about not having enough time to read our Bibles, pray, and sit in the quiet with Him, yet we can go down an hour-long rabbit hole on the internet on a daily basis.
Can you relate?
So how do we step away from those bright screens and choose His unwavering light instead?
Soul before scroll. (This is a mantra I’ve been living by for a while now and it truly helps.)
As soon as I wake up, I start by thanking God for something good. No matter what’s going on in our lives, we can always name at least three things.
From there, I move into my Soul Check-In—a simple, quiet morning guide I created to help me turn my heart toward Jesus before the rest of the world has a say. (You can download it free here.)
Maybe for you, it’s as simple as leaving your phone on the charger for the first ten minutes of the day.
Starting my mornings this way has become a rhythm for me, and it’s been deeply helpful. Now, as I move through the rest of this fast, I’m paying closer attention to how often I reach for my phone throughout the day and learning to loosen my grip there too.
Are you choosing God over the pull of your phone or finding it a daily struggle as well? I’d love to hear from you. We can do this, together.
Here are a few of Wendy Speake’s 40-day devotionals I love and return to every year:
(Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are included below for your convenience)
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