Daily Devotions
Freedom, Folly, and the Internet
Reading for September 25th: Micah
Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
Micah 2:1
A lot of the wickedness we devise in our heads stays there because we lack opportunity to fullfill the desires of our heart. We covet what is wicked, but cannot have what is wicked because we do not have access to it.
However, the number of things we cannot have is decreasing rapidly. Think of all the things we have access to with the Internet. For example, the Internet has taken the depraved world of pornography, which used to be only found on the seedy side of town, and placed it in our living rooms.
The Internet has produced more opportunity for gamblers, for thieves, for gossips. With facebook, opportunities for infidelity have increased. A wife who is frustrated with her husband or a husband who is unhappy with his wife can easily find connections with "friends" through this medium, even reconnect with old flames from high school.
What is the solution? Certainly there is technology out there to help guard us from some of the evils on the Internet, and of course, getting rid of the computer is always an option a Christian must consider (see Matthew 5:29-30).
But the core of the problem is what is in our hearts. The problem is not with the Internet, it only provides the opportunity for sin. Sin begins in the heart. We should begin our work there if the Internet is a problem for us.
Create in us clean hearts, O God!
