Are you on social media? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the social media sites? I personally have a couple of accounts. The thing about social media is you’re in complete control of your own reality. At least the reality people see. You can post whatever you want, whether it’s true or not. You can make yourself look like you’re living on top of the world and in reality, you may be struggling with depression or be in total financial ruin.
It’s easy to make things look good on social media. It can also be easy to make things look good in real life as well. We can pretend everything is going fine. Get dressed up nice for church and say all the right things — and your world can be falling apart. Your pastor may not know and the people sitting next to you may not know, but God knows.
You can fool your social media followers and you may be able to fool the people around you, but the Lord can see your heart. In 1st Samuel, God said he “sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Many of us have pretenses for people we want to impress or on our online profiles, but I don’t want any pretense before God. He already knows the truth! You don’t have to share all your faults with your followers or even your real friends. Many times that’s not healthy anyway. But you need to know it’s safe to share with God. God cares and is ready for you to open up to him.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” — John 3:17
Captain Mark Cyr is pastor of The Salvation Army, 661 Colorado St. Carson City, NV 89701. For information, go to carsoncity.salvationarmy.org.
