Most people watch the news. Why do they do this? In the eye of the rational man, the negative effects far outweigh the benefits. When watching the news many people are deluded to the reality of the world. What is worse is that most people then become entangled with the world and the affairs therein. Their own spirituality becomes deluded because of how attached hey are to earthly events. This is a great evil, and this is an enemy to masculinity.
“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him”.
2 Timothy 2:4
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!”
Psalm 33:12
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”
Philippians 3:20
Can you remember being upset at the news last week, last month or last year? You probably can. But can you remember exactly what you were watching that made you upset? Probably not. So what exactly did watching the news profit you? The world did not end. Life went on. Practically nothing has changed in the American Government as far as radical differences. You got upset and perhaps ruined your entire day without acquiring any type of benefit for your character. The morning hour must consist of you becoming primed for the day, not you ruining your day by taking in a negative visual diet first thing in the morning. It’s like eating jellybeans for breakfast. Televised news is a waste of time because it doesn’t reflect reality. News stations aren’t interested in facts, they are interested in viewers.
The main problem is not watching the news, the problem is that most people become entangled with the world when they watch the news.
They become sour and miserly, they complain and act so negative that they repel everyone they are around. This is not the way Christians are going to convert people. If you are carrying around a cloud of anger and negativity fueled by “current events”, then you are not allowed to complain about people not wanting to listen to you talk to them about the gospel. You seem to be no different from them, filled with depression and anger, so why should they listen to you? You are not acting as though you possess the soul-saving gospel.
According to the Justice Bureau Statistic and distilled by the Pew Research Center, violent crime is down 79%, with 29 violent crimes committed out of every 1000 people ages 12 and up in 2017. This is a reduction from 79.8 crimes in the early 90s. The FBI Reports a 49% decrease in violent crime, with 747 violent crimes in the early 90s, and 382.9 crimes in 2017.
Source: Gramlich, John. “5 Facts about crime in the US”. Pew Research Center, Jan 3, 2019
If you let the mainstream news outlets be your source for what is going on in the world, then you would likely believe that crime is going up because that is all that is reported.
This is not the case, America and the world are actually becoming less violent. The news outlets are dying with the development of the internet and podcasting, so news outlets are forced to do anything to keep your attention. They focus solely on crime and the negative aspects of life because they know this is what gathers attention in the modern age. Outrage culture is addictive, people simply enjoy being angry and negative. All the negativity is based on lies and skewed data.
The state of the world is not so important that we should constantly be worried about it. The state of the nation is not as important as the faith, believe it or not. Throughout history, everytime the home-base nation for Christianity fell, Christians just moved somewhere else. In the broadest sense, Christianity went from Rome to England and then to America. If America continues down a path of immorality, it seems as though Africa is the place where Christians will move since Christianity flourishes there. Christianity always survives the collapse of nations. In fact, it is not even scratched.
Mantra
This world is temporary.
Application
Keep your faith as the most important element in your mind. Your faith cannot be touched if you do not allow it to be. You have likely become entangled with the world, as we all have. The modern faith is easy and convenient for most people to maintain, which is why their faith is so weak, it has not been put through the furnace to be strengthened.
We can lie to ourselves about the difficulty of life and faith but the reality is that having faith and living life is easier and more comfortable than it has ever been in history. And we are more entangled with the cares of the world than we ever have been in history. We must reject this.
We cannot purge out every semblance of the world from our life, it is not possible. However, at the very least we must put our faith first, which is more than most Christians do. Remember how many of them read their Bible daily?
Get out a notebook and start making daily disciplines for yourself.
You must read the Bible daily and pray. If you are not doing this you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself serious questions about the quality of your faith. You have the mind of God sitting on your shelf and you aren’t using it.
It is of the utmost importance to go to bed a little later or wake up a little earlier in order to get the Bible reading in. Great men of faith in the Bible prayed three times daily (Daniel 6:10-28). That may be too much to ask of you right now, but it is a goal we all should have. Are you concentrating on the Word every day without fail or are you a loser who just so happens to wear the name of Christ? Today is the day you end your negative practices. Reject the entanglement of the world.
Cut off the news, it is doing you no good.
If you want to know how the world is faring, read actual statistics, do not listen to other people report on what is happening. Read an unbiased international news source reporting on American events. At the very least read both sides of a political argument and search for the facts.
Gather your strength. Focus your mind on the church. Reject worldliness and its accompanying filth. Harden your resolve to obliterate the enemy from your mind. Be a Man.
Conduct Yourselves Like Men.
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