Purity & Social Media Social Media Issue

Introduction How to be pure and mindfully using social media to improve our lives? How our spiritual, physical, and mental lives are all negatively impacted by impurity and social media? Practice tools and solutions to fight the good fight and live a life of purity and usage of social media?

Memory Verse

Body Physical body, our flesh has biological needs are like eating, drinking, breathing, etc. Complex: it is still limited and temporary and one day it will return to the earth from whence it came from. When we know how to respond to these needs, impulses and desires in a Christian way, our bodies can be a tool that can complement our spiritual lives, not hurt it.

Spirit Our spirit is eternal and made in God’s Image Our spiritual lives are the most precious thing in God’s eyes. Our spiritual needs: partaking of the sacraments, prayer, fasting, repenting, drawing closer to God, and ultimately being united with our Creator in the Paradise of Joy. Since we live in a physical world, it can be very easy to forget to tend to our spiritual needs.

Mind When we go to war we must know our enemy, his favorite tactics, weapons, and how he uses them so we don’t become defeated by them. Lust is one of the devils favorite weapons against us. Impurity and the Mind: Our thoughts should be used for thinking about God’s glory, being reasonable, motivating ourselves, learning, being creative, inventing things, etc. In this case let us imagine our bad thoughts as vicious black ravens. Everything created by man started as a thought. Our thoughts pave the road to our actions. “But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.” James 1:14-15 Impurity and the Body: True love respects and honors the person, it doesn’t need sex to express its self. True love waits till marriage. Most of them thought they were going to marry that person but they never do. Don’t ever think that God will not accept you because you sinned, God always accepts us and loves us, even when we don’t accept and love our selves.

Mind cont’d “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Mathew 5:28 Can you think of someone in the bible that avoided sexual relationships and God blessed them and made them very successful? Can you also think of righteous people who have fallen because of lust? Can you think of people in the bible or saints who did impure things but repented and God accepted them? Impurity and the Spirit: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Mathew 5:8

Conclusion “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 When we focus on our spiritual lives, we will find much greater pleasure in drawing near to God than any earthly thing can provide. The instant gratification of social media will not control us, we will be strengthened against temptations of lust. As the children of God, we are not meant to be enslaved or addicted, we are meant to be free and liberated.

Questions for Reflection What achievable changes can we make to our social media presence to encourage purity? What are some of your triggers? What good social media habits & applications do you have that you can share?

What can I do when I am tempted? Talk to your father of confession Identify your “Triggers” Replace triggers with good habits Set a designated time Always, always, always equip yourself with prayer and Bible verses