Today’s cell phones are extremely effective; with them, you can communicate with anybody in the world. Despite this being a positive thing, you must be careful not to live under your phone’s influence. You must not get addicted to your phone or live by it because Jesus said that man is to live by every word that comes out of God’s mouth (Matthew 4:4). Your Bible is what you must be addicted to and live by, not your phone. If you are not conscious of this, your phone may easily replace the word of God in your life, and this is quite dangerous because the Bible says that our God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).

When you wake up in the morning, do you pick up your phone first or your Bible? You may say that you pick up your phone to check the time, but really, do you study the apps on your phone first or the verses in your Bible? Throughout the day, what do you have more on your mind, what you saw on your phone or what you read in the Bible? You are to meditate on God’s word day and night, not on social media feeds and reels. When you want to start a conversation with your friend in your DM, what interesting thing do you start with, a funny meme or a Scripture? Ephesians 5:19 says that we are to speak to each other in psalms and hymns, but many no longer have such conversations; it is all about celebrity gossip and memes. Can you see that there is a need to repent if your heart has been drawn away from God for so long without you knowing it? It is time to return to God’s word and become addicted to it again. It is time to begin to study the word first thing in the morning and last thing at night every day.

If your heart has been drawn away from God, to bring your heart back to God’s word, you will have to exercise a lot of self-control. You must take decisive actions and stick with them. For example, decide to charge your phone far from you and put your Bible beside your pillow at bedtime. This way, you will read it before you sleep and pick it up when you wake up. You may need to delete some apps that you are addicted to. The time spent on them can be put to better use in prayers and the study of the word of God.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.