The most neglected spiritual practice in the modern world is fasting. Choose to fast from a food is good, but how about a device? Check ✔️ up: Compare your time  spent on any device, cell phone, iPad, TV, computer, to the time you spend in God’s Word or prayer.  People scroll for hours, because it is an addictive distraction brought to us by the devil. It also causes a dangerous dopamine spike which is linked to being aggressive and having trouble controlling your impulses. A dopamine overdose erases motivation.

Anything that competes with God and wins is an idol. The attention deficit disorder ADHD is increasing via device addiction. How many hours a day do you spend scanning news, reels, or podcasters? The average screen time per person age 12-75 is 5 hours per day. This addiction is not talked about and it leads to anger, anxiety, lost motivation, depression, insomnia, and suicide. It inflames the brain as it crowds out God’s voice.

Then, we eat foods that are purposely laced with addictive chemicals.  These very poisonous additives cause most debilitating addictions. The fact is that USA citizens are more unhealthy than lesser developed countries. FYI: Cigarettes were laced with addictive chemicals. Once cigarettes became known as dangerous, the cigarette industry bought the food companies. They used the same evil science to make processed food addictive.

A Legal Addiction

Intentionally choose God and ween yourself off  device scrolling. Avoid foods laced with poisonous chemicals.  Consider this truth warning. Anything that takes up more of your TIME; than what TIME you spend with God, is an IDOL. Measure your time on any device against time in the Bible? Watching sports, the food channel, or news stations should not exceed the time you spend in worship. RFK at age 70 works out an hour each day.  Have you noticed a dip in your memory? Do your hands feel numb? Has the ringing in your ears increased? The subtle ways of Satan are found in daily,  trending, reels of ridiculous distractions. Zero truth.

Five action steps to quit any addiction. Food, social media, drugs, or alcohol.
Set a quit date. It might be helpful to choose a meaningful date like a special event, birthday, vacation, or anniversary.
1) List activities you enjoy. Change your environment.
2) Remove addictive substance from quick access. Put cell phone in your car. Use only to make calls. Check mail twice daily.
3) Review past attempts at quitting. Fast from the substance of addiction for 48 hours. Phone, Food, Drink, or behavior.
4) Write down a goal. Create a support network.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth. Determine to stop relying on yourself. Enroll the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Choose to NOT be a victim of Satan’s schemes to cause you to fail. Every addiction removes all motivation to trust God, turn to God, and rely on the Holy Spirit.

The truth is the world operates and spins without our input. Instead, take a walk, do laundry, play frisbee, plan to spend face to face time with others. Set up a rule with family members. No cell phones during meals together.  Park the car 2 blocks away from your destination and walk. Store all devices in your car at 4 pm. Check messages only at breakfast and a final check at 4 pm. Anything urgent can be handled tomorrow.  God has all things in His hands. Listen to music, draw, color, craft, dig, watch a movie, dance, BBQ a big fat steak.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  To have all the answers, is to have faith in ourselves NOT God. Even the demons believe in God and they shudder. Ruthless trust is to have faith in the unseen, with little clarity about what God is actually doing. Needing to acquire an infinite certainty before admitting that there is a God, might be the last idol that folks stubbornly cling to. Such rebellion leads to a hard heart and self delusion.

Have you ever lied about why you were late to work? Do you call on social media for approval or God? Have you envied others? Stolen a pen from work? Been unforgiving towards anyone? Have you ever held onto a bitter grudge?  Sinners need a Savior in order to receive eternal life in a place of everlasting joy and peace. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him MUST BELIEVE that HE EXISTS and that HE rewards those who earnestly seek HIM.” Hebrews 11

Experts report that 33 % of the Bible is prophecy. More than 10,000 of the 31,102 verses contain prophecy. Over 5,000 prophecies have already been fulfilled. That is no small down payment. God has put his money where his mouth is and demonstrated his promise-keeping faithfulness to generations of believers.” Be influenced by truth. The Non-Prophet’s Guide to End Times by Todd Hampson. A great book.

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