PS.
Last week we were drawn to words in Matthew 5:29, 30 in which Jesus speaks of plucking out your eye or cutting off you hand if they offend you because it is better to enter heaven maimed than to go to hell intact.
We were led to view them from an aspect of whether we had really repented, and whether a lack of real repentance was what caused us to keep sinning - in particular thinking of besetting sins.
After finishing the blog post I just glanced at the commentaries on Bible Hub and noticed some speaking of how we may have to temporarily deprive ourselves of pleasures or profit in this life rather than perish eternally or suffer the consequential guilt and punishment.
Much has been written on the fact that Jesus spoke of the eye and the right hand rather than the left hand or the foot, but I generally noticed that I hadn't commented on this aspect at all.
Well this week I enjoyed conversation with a friend as we spoke of our besetting sins and wondered how we could support each other - for me, it is the time I waste on my phone, either scrolling through the news items and Instagram or watching youtube videos - mainly profitable videos of other Christians or homemakers - but they are often on 'keeping me company' as I do housework or distracting me from getting on.
I have grieved over the time spent wasted on my phone over and over again- especially when tired when it is so easy to plop down on the sofa with it - but since last week have been troubled, praying to the Lord for a real God given repentance over it.
As I stood washing up and thinking about this and how my friend and I could support each other, and none of my ideas seeming any good, the words of Matthew 5:29 & 30 gently came into my thoughts.
'Is this what the Lord is meaning with these verses?!' I thought with sudden realisation, 'He wants me to give up my phone...he wants me to give up indulging this 'lust' which is so strong, so addictive, so hard to give up...but how is it possible to manage??'
I spent the next few minutes (ironically) looking at the views online of people who have given up their smart phones, how to manage it and the benefits of it.
One, Jordan Hawkins, particularly struck a cord as he said, 'Life is going to pass you by if you live your life in this phone, in this device, but the scary thing is that you are more afraid of what you will miss if you turn it off...'
Others spoke of how they began to sleep better, had less anxiety, improved concentration, they became more 'present' and connected to their immediate physical world and people around them, they became much more productive, they began reading books and more.
The draw backs were the difficulties of using restaurants/shops etc where you need a QR code, the need for managing map navigation with a separate GPS gadget or the old fashioned way - with a map!
I sat on the floor in the kitchen and tearfully sent my friend a message, praying to the Lord, and then deleted Instagram from my phone and disabled Youtube (Apparently you can still upload photos to Instagram from a laptop which I only need to do when alerting people to a new post).
I didn't feel led to do more at this moment, but the freedom I felt from these actions was immense, and my productivity has doubled.
Dear friend, do you too feel that 'life is passing you by as you live your life in your phone'?
Are you bothered by how it seems to come between you and the Lord, how you are not redeeming the time, how it has such a 'hold' over you?
May he give you strength to 'cut off' or 'pluck out' this lust in the way that he leads you.
Thank you for continuing to return to 'Precious Thoughts', where we seek to share thoughts arising from reading the Bible - thoughts which we trust the Lord leads us to. And thank you for the mutually encouraging thoughts which are shared by you likewise.
We are taking a Summer break from the blog for 3 weeks, but look forward to being with you again soon.
Love Elinor x
PPS
The dahlia flower above was a bit of a surprise - we had no idea what colour it would be or whether it would grow being a £2 pack of 2 from a price reduction and looking rather sad - we're now waiting to see whether its 'twin' will also have such lovely flowers 😊
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