Home Invasion

Sometimes God’s people display amazing insights way before their time. Tozer died in 1963 so his devotional thoughts are decades old, yet today he says this:

“Our ‘vastly improved methods of communication’ of which the shortsighted boast so loudly, now enable a few men in strategic centers to feed into millions of minds alien thought stuff, ready-made and predigested. A little effortless assimilation of these borrowed ideas and the average man has done all the thinking he will or can do. This subtle brainwashing goes on day after day and year after year to the eternal injury of the populace . . . .”

One of our gifts yesterday was a device that when you say its name it will do what you ask, such as turn on the TV, give you a weather report, tell you how long to roast a turkey, and just about anything else. While it supposedly ‘tunes in’ when you call it, I cannot help but wonder if it is listening in all the time. (Part of my thinking is likely influenced by a movie we watched, “Snowden.”

Tozer also said that it used to be that a man’s home was his castle, a sure retreat to which he might return for quietness and solitude. What a far cry most homes are from that. Think of the place in our lives where electronic devices take over — smart phones, HD television, devices that serve as slaves, and the power of computers. I can go anywhere and find out just about anything at the touch of a few keys, or by saying just a few words.

So do we have solitude and a place where we can retire in privacy? Tozer suggests so, and I agree. One place where no one can ‘spy’ upon me is my prayer life. Oh, I do pray aloud, but I don’t have to. When I pray silently, only God can hear my words. Only God knows the deepest thoughts of my heart. Not only that, all these modern electronic devices might be able to turn on the lights, but they cannot forgive my sin and cleanse my heart . . .

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:1–7)

While the time I spend talking to God is most precious, that time is often threatened. I’m distracted and lured by email, text messages, and now a little device that offers to do whatever I tell it. God’s voice is like a whisper, not black and white words, and He does not immediately jump to do whatever I ask. But He does what no electronic thing-a-ma-jig can do — He knows what I think and He loves me with an everlasting love. He guards my life against temptation and sin, and He picks me up when I fall. He hugs me when I am struggling and laughs with me when my heart is filled with joy. He gives me peace that passes understanding and His mercy has no boundaries. Google and Amazon have tried, but they cannot replace the Lord with circuits and wires!

^^^^^^^^

Jesus, figuring out what to do with this gift is another of life’s challenges. Give us wisdom. Do we return it? Or do we learn how to keep it handy in some way that is helpful but does not invade our lives?