Filling our Mindless Moments
Psalm 1 has become one of those passages that feels like an old friend, but I was challenged recently by a brand-new application I hadn’t considered before.
I was sitting in a parking lot, waiting to pick up a friend from the airport, and I decided to spend some time reading the Bible and talking with God.
Despite the familiarity, the first two verses of Psalm 1 popped out at me:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (vv. 1-2)
It was towards the end of Christmas break, and I had gotten in the habit of filling all my little moments here and there with my phone.
As I read that passage, I began to connect some dots that perhaps were just for me, but I thought it might be helpful for you as well.
I had noticed that the amount of time I spent simply scrolling on my phone to fill time really added up. I was actually looking for good things to share with friends, but in the process, quite a bit of what Psalm 1 talks about was showing up in my feed.
I have been careful from the beginning to train Instagram’s algorithm not to show me blatantly wicked or ungodly things, but even the posts and reels put out by Christians can have underlying philosophies or assumptions that are not in line with the truth of God’s Word.
When we spend more time scrolling on our phones than we do reading or meditating on God’s Word, we are putting ourselves in a place where it is easy for our enemies to get at us. The world, the flesh, and the devil are all over social media, and no matter how careful we are with what we view and interact with, there will still be plenty of “the counsel of the ungodly,” the “way of sinners,” and the opinions of “the scornful” that get through.
I’m not necessarily saying a Christian should never interact with a public forum such as social media, but what I am pointing out is the easy progression from walking in the counsel of the ungodly, to standing in the way of sinners, to then sitting in the seat of the scornful.
We may start out just spending a minute or two looking for something good to send to a friend, but that can easily turn into hours of mindless scrolling.
Since that day when the Holy Spirit connected Psalm 1 with the way I was filling my time, I have found such freedom in limiting my time on my phone. I have been spending more time with Him, more time doing things that are spiritually profitable, and as a result, it is far easier to fix my eyes on Him from day to day.
Those mindless things we fill our moments with, whether social media, games, scrolling Pinterest, or even immersing ourselves in a captivating work of fiction—these are often replacements for the fulness of God in our lives. For myself, I noticed that I tended to spend the most time scrolling when I felt bored or listless, and that I usually felt that way when I also felt less close to the Lord, or when I was on spiritual “auto pilot”.
Now, dear Reader, I’ve shared what God spoke to my heart about with this passage, but how about you? How much time are the world’s forms of entertainment taking out of your day? Is there something the Holy Spirit is calling you to do about that?
The use of our time, the content of our “mindless” moments, is something that only God can truly help us manage. Bring Him with you into every minute of the day, and ask Him to help you fill your time—and your heart—with His fullness.
“And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16