According to several studies over the past few years, the average person spends between 8-13 hours per day online or consuming media entertainment.1   In contrast, worship services last for approximately 3 hours once a week (add another hour if you attend prayer meeting). Let's say you take one day off media every week on Sabbath, that still puts the average person at 48-78 hours per week of media and entertainment: 48-78 hours vs. 4 hours! This breaks my heart!

Let's do a little more math: if you attend a church with 200 members, on average the congregation will have spent between 9,600-15,600 hours during the past week on media and entertainment. Compare that to a total of only 800 hours of spiritual instruction (presuming every member attends church and prayer meeting weekly). That's a staggering difference.

Is it any wonder that in Revelation 3 Jesus describes the church just before His coming as "lukewarm"?

You know what synergy is, right? The same idea applies here. We, as a group can either combine ideas and thoughts to further God's work and bless others, or we can use that concept to pull others deeper into a path that does not lead to life. We need to be making Him the top priority as the world becomes more chaotic. If we don't, how can we be sure it's God's voice leading us?

If we know the plot line of a popular TV show, or intimate details about our favorite YouTuber, but don't know the Bible or intimate details about God's plans for us, this is (to put it very mildly) problematic for us as Christians. It's not just "problematic" though — it can quite literally become a matter of life and death.

We know of the historical fulfilment of the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem and ultimately destroying the temple and the city in 70AD. But there will be another siege on Spiritual Israel. It is time to flee to Jesus, our Rock. It’s not the time to rely on coverings of our own good works, but to put our faith wholly in Jesus and put on His covering of righteousness. It’s time to start praying for purified hearts ready to receive the Latter Rain.

Just think how much we as a church could accomplish with God’s help if things were switched and we were spending the same amount of time in the Word as many do “in the world”! Let us pray for the renewing of our minds and a change of “technological appetite” so that we are ready to stand in the presence of our Holy God.

1 https://www.emarketer.com/content/digital-media-makes-up-nearly-two-thirds-of-consumers-total-time-spent-with-media
https://www.statista.com/topics/1536/media-use/#topicOverview