Saved by His Grace

Shalom to all my readers; I hope you have been well! After taking three months off to rest more and focus more on my walk with the Lord, I am back.

Today, I want to focus on the important topic of taking a break, or fasting, from social media. If not used correctly, social media can become a major distraction in one’s walk with the Lord.

Social media can even become an idol – an idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life. Some people may be seeking the approval of men more than God, which is a dangerous, slippery slope.

Last year, I took a two-month fast from social media, the longest I had ever gone without touching my personal social media accounts. It was a truly rejuvenating experience that entirely changed how I approach social media usage today.

After a stressful season where I wasn’t properly focusing on my walk with Christ, I recently made the resolve to do another long fast from social media.

Currently, with the return to the blog, my plan is to only get on my blog’s social media accounts occasionally for posting, but to remain off of my personal social media accounts for the time being. There is so much peace in being unplugged from social media, and it is honestly something that I wish had done sooner.

Today, I wanted to talk about the benefits of fasting from social media in hopes of helping others who may be struggling, whether it be with anxiety, social media addiction, time management or just realizing that distractions have been taking you away from precious time with the Lord.

#1: High social media usage can cause heightened stress and anxiety.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. –Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

Regardless of whether you notice it or not, being on social media a lot can cause heightened stress and anxiety.

Within a couple of weeks after the first social media fast, I noticed I was at peace a whole lot more and was able to just be more present and truly live in the moment. This is because being on social media constantly was heightening the anxiety I had already been trying to surrender more to the Lord.

Studies, like this one from Stanford, show that heavy social media use carries increased risks of depression, anxiety, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, and suicidal thoughts. It can also disrupt sleep patterns, causing poor sleep and fatigue.

The stress of constantly checking your social media feed and seeing a lot of gossip and negativity carries a higher risk than you realize. Freedom can truly be found by stepping away and being present in your own life.

Personally, the feeling of constant comparison exacerbated anxiety and feelings of loneliness and inadequacy for me. Social media has become a place where people post the highlights of their lives, but suffer in silence with the struggles that go on off the screen.

But before I knew Christ, I didn’t understand this, and would constantly feel discontent with my own life as I looked at pictures of people’s trips and weddings. Ironically enough, I was doing the exact same thing: posting photos of all my trips and selfies and photos with my ex where I looked very happy, but inside, I was very depressed and unhappy.

Social media allowed me to show how I wanted my life to be, and I suspect this is the same for other lost souls. I praise the Lord mightily for setting me free and delivering me from the crippling depression I once felt.

If you are new to this blog or haven’t read my testimony of the Lord setting me free from a very long struggle with depression, you can read it here, and I hope that you will be encouraged if you yourself or someone you know is facing similar battles.

#2: Social media usage can affect our brains and our ability to stay focused.

For some of you who are on social media a lot, you may have noticed that it has become harder to stay focused on one thing at a time for a long period. 

For some, gone are the days of being able to watch 45-minute to one-hour long sermons; now if a sermon or video is longer than 20 minutes, many will stay away. Just think of all the valuable information you are missing out on, revelations that could be vital to your healing and spiritual growth.

Growing evidence suggests that excessive social media use can have negative impacts on our brains and cognitive function. I strongly believe our addiction to technology and media is causing a lot of what doctors misdiagnose as attention deficit disorder. 

I cannot even imagine what the constant scroll of Instagram or TikTok reels must do to one’s brain. Our brains weren’t made to watch one short 15-second video after another. We must fully use the beautiful brains the Lord has given us.

#3: Taking a break from social media can allow you to foster stronger connections with close family and friends. 

Since I was no longer sharing stuff on social media and checking in on people’s lives through the lens of social media, I was able to just check in with people normally. I was able to share things on a smaller, more intimate level, and it felt really good and healthy. 

I was reminded of how life was before social media was a thing and the importance of just checking in with family and close friends one-on-one.

During my first fast, I discovered how healthy it is to just make wonderful memories and not share them with 200+ people but only a couple close friends.

I had a wonderful hiking experience during my vacation that led to a beautiful mountain overlook. I was able to just be more present and live in the moment, not worrying about posting a ton of my best photos of it to social media. This felt truly freeing and amazing.

I don’t know about you, but social media can carry a huge pressure to where you feel like you need to stay up to date with people’s lives.

But do you remember life before social media was a thing? When friends and family would just regularly check in with you on the phone about important updates in their lives? What happened to that? I genuinely miss that. 

You should not need to get on Facebook to find out that someone got engaged or married, is battling with a struggle or illness, or even that someone passed away.

Those used to be private moments that you would share one on one with loved ones. We need to get back to that type of closeness, that level of genuine human connection.

#4: Last but certainly not least: Taking a break from social media allows you to spend more quality time with God.

To truly grow in one’s faith and develop a personal relationship with Christ, we need to make Him a priority in our lives above all else, and this includes praying and reading the Bible first thing every day before we even talk to a single soul.

This means going to Him before we go to the news, social media, email, etc. This means giving Him our firsts, not our leftovers. 

Social media can become a big distraction, eating up our free time that we should be giving to the Lord.

Believe me, I have been there: utterly exhausted after work, needing to take a small break, so I open up social media. Before I knew it, I was scrolling and scrolling and nearly an hour had gone by.

If the above sounds like you, just consider how much time you are wasting. If you are on social media for 30 minutes to an hour every day, that’s 3.5 to 7 hours in a single week that could have been given to reading His Word and spending time in prayer.

Sure, mindless scrolling may feel comforting at the time after a long day, and I’ve been there countless times. But, Jesus is supposed to be our Comforter, and His comfort is everlasting, not fleeting. One important thing I have also come to recognize personally: we run to social media and media to escape stress and even to escape confronting past wounds that need to be healed.

Running away from problems like this only delays the healing work that Jesus is trying to do in our lives. Ultimately, it causes divided loyalties between the cares of this world and resting in our eternal security.

Jesus is coming back really soon, and we should be devoting a whole lot more time to Him than we are to social media and entertainment. We need to get our hearts and lives right with Him before it’s too late.

Until next time, Lord willing, shalom to my brothers and sisters in Christ. May you have a blessed weekend.

P.S. Lord willing, I will be switching my blog post publication time to Thursday evenings (EST).

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