Distractions To Hearing God: Digital Fasting

Digital Fasting -before I start I just want to say that we are not against technology, iphones, ipads, digital content, games, or TV. I don’t suggest you through away all your devices and do a digital fast the rest of your life.

I’m about balance, but what happens when these get out of balance in our life?

Psalm 119:37.

Psalm 119:37 ESV

37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Mary Oliver said “ Attention is the beginning of devotion”

1) What are we spending our attention on?

Children 8-12 spend 4-6 hours per day on a screen.

The average teen spends 7 hours and 22 minutes looking at screens each day which is 43% of a teen’s waking hours. Out of the 7 hours 4.8 hours is spent on social media.)

47% of parents allow their children to have 3 hours of screen time per day. While 85% allow at least an hour.

American teens’ screen time has increased by around 2 hours since 2015

FOR ADULTS the average time is 7 hours per day. That’s an average of 49 hours a week.

57% of Americans consider themselves addicted.

Do an experiment and look around and see how many people are on their phones.

I wonder how many people have come to the place were they ask themselves is this taking more away from me than is adding to my life?

The more we scroll the more tech companies make money through advertising to us, which creates massive incentive for them to keep us glued to our screens and on our devices.

2)The tech industry is in an arms race for people’s attention. Most digital technology is engineered for distraction and addiction because that where the money is at.

-Most of us will not be tempted to take heroin. However there is a drug that has captured a whole generation of people. Its called content.

Content that we are attracted to . That we love to browse. That we find interesting, engaging.

Companies that make this drug have found ways to get you hooked through dopamine algorithms.

Algorithms - A social media algorithm is a set of rules and data that determines what content users see on a social media platform. They create a profile based on everything we click.

They then create a algorithm that sends you more and more of the same to keep you clicking away.

For example if we click on cooking videos, they will know we like cooking videos and our app will begin to send more and more of the same type of videos to get us hooked.

The companies aim is to keep us on their platform longer which in return makes them more money mainly through advertisement.

Like a drug it has began to suck life out of us.

The boundaries that protected your real life, which is time with your church, family, friends, and with God.

No boundaries of space or time to protect your life unless you build them.

3)Side effects of spending so much time on our screens:

We need to ask ourselves at what cost or what are we giving in exchange for these things.

Anxiety - depression - rage - eating disorders - sleep problems - relationship erosion - or difficulty forming relationships in the real world - social issues - child neglect - inability to focus - low work productivity

Here are some cognitive disorders:

47% of those feel the compulsion to fill any momentary boredom with the use of a smartphone

38% consume tragic online news with emotional or psychological response or impact. Another words we become numb to bad news.

32% are spending time on their device when being with their loved ones and giving it more attention than the people

It mainly steals time from us. We are spending more time in the digital world than the real world. Ephesians 5:15-16

Ephesians 5:15–16 NKJV

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

When God says we should be “redeeming the time,” He wants us to live in constant awareness of that ticking clock and make the most of the time we have.

We need to ask ourselves what are we getting out of this deal? What are we getting in return? Is it life?

Its stealing our attention. Luke 10:38-42

Luke 10:38–42 ESV

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Our devices make us a lot more like Martha than it does Mary.

We are distracted with so many things that do not matter.

Every day I feel like that my screens - TV, I pad, Cell Phone, Computer is asking for my attention. They have hijacked our attention.

Our enemy wants to distract us from the life that God has designed us for.

There is only so much you can focus on at a time.

Our brains receive 11 million bits of information in the form of sensory experiences each second.

How many bits of information can we focus on at one time? JUST 40!

For example having a conversation takes up the majority of the 40 bits which explains why we can’t carry on 2 conversation at once.

You don’t have enough space in your focus of 40 bits to both text on your phone while you read. At best you can drink a cup of coffee while you read.

After focusing on something, we can only hold 7 bits of that information in our short-term memory.

Not all task require a lot of our focus space. Tasks like habits which we can form without much focus while complex tasks require a lot of space.

For example we can walk and breath and chew gum while we listen to a podcast at the same time.

Or you can drive the same route everyday out of habit while you listening to an audio book which you’ll be able to get through a extra book a week while utilizing the attention freed by a habitual task.

So we can focus on Jesus and practice the presence of God while we are doing habitual task such brushing our teeth, getting dressed, shaving, putting away laundry which doesn't require a lot of conscious thought. We can turn our attention to Jesus.

Our attention span is dropping each passing year. The average attention span is 8 seconds vs goldfish has 9 seconds. We are loosing to goldfish.

5) How do we get back into balance with our screen time and digital devices?

Consider going on a digital fast.

John Piper: Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God. Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of superior satisfaction in God, it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away. Fasting has been associated with mourning, a sign of re-penitence, an accompaniment to prayer, and preparing oneself to receive divine revelation.

St Augustine: Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects on’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity.

Bill Bright said: fasting is biblical way to truly humble yourself in the sight of God. King David said, “I humbled myself with fasting” fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance and transformed life.

Your confidence and faith in God will be strengthened. You will feel mentally spiritually and physically refreshed.

The goal for fasting is to increase our hunger for God and to have that hunger satisfied with Him.

Preparing for a digital fast and what does it look like?

First set a goal and ask yourself why you want to fast.

Take off all the distracting apps off your phone and only use the utility ones.

Distracting

social media - email - news apps - games - video apps - web - browsers - shopping apps - streaming services - TV in general or all screens that you use for personal enjoyment.

Utility

phone - text - calendar - camera - music - weather - GPS -notes

Purchase an alarm to set next to your bed at night instead of your cell phone.

get an analog watch to replace your smart watch.

set auto reply to your work email to let everyone know what hours of the week they can expect a reply.

communicate with your family, friends, and coworkers that you are unplugging for awhile and ask them to support you.

You most likely will have some symptoms of withdraw:

nervousness, restlessness, irritability, heightened emotional sensitivity and realize feelings of anger, grief, or sadness, even if your initially unsure of the cause.

Our engagement with digital technology often disguises unpleasant feelings and leads us to avoid coping with them.

Benefits might include:

Improved sleep - aware of God’s leading and His nearness - increased mental clarity - ability to focus intentionally, easing of of shoulder and neck tension - greater peace - ability to meditate - better relationships - etc...