Word For The Day: The Will of God In Your Entertainment

As we continue with our topic of how to be engaged in entertainment for God’s glory, I would like to share with you about the importance of the mind. That is, in order for us to be entertained in a way that honors God, we need to make sure that our mind is always engaged in what we are about to do.

Yesterday we learned about boredom, and when we are bored, it is very easy to switch off our minds and act like the proverbial vegetable, just mindlessly sitting there without any purpose, engagement or active watchfulness, but our mind must always be alert and engaged, especially when we are spending time in entertainment activities.
 
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom. 12:2)

EXPLANATION:

It is a command from the Lord that we never conform our thoughts and actions to the standards that this world offers; such standards are not only sinful, they are also very damaging to our life. Instead, the Bible commands us to be constantly engaged in a renewal of our mind and of the way we think, but in order to do so, we must make sure that our mind is actively engaged in every activity.

When it comes to entertainment, the world presents us with so many options that are not pleasing to the Lord and others that border the line of sinfulness, and little by little, the Devil advances his agenda in our minds and fills us with worldly thoughts and actions. These worldly forms of entertainment can come in the form of movies that glorify sinful sexual activity, music that dishonors the Lord, “innocent and funny TV shows that teach us a worldly philosophy of what family a should be like and does so in a comedy form. The world teaches us that Christians are old school and stupid, men are passive and useless, women are angry leaders of the home and society, and children are a bother and something that gets on the way of our comfort and happiness. We are constantly exposed to worldly entertainment, and then we wonder why our family looks like the world. It is crazy to believe that you can spend countless hours engaged in worldly entertainment weekly, and at the same time be godly when you only spend one hour a week in church, and your prayer life does not go beyond a monotonous daily prayer for your food right before you eat. All this shows that we have disengaged our mind from our entertainment and instead of renewing it by the constant exposure to holy things, we allow it to soak in worldly thinking by exposing it to what the world teaches us.

The second part of the verse says: “that by testing you may discern what is the will of God”. The reason we must always keep our minds engaged is because we need to know what God’s will is for our lives and for our entertainment. You will only know by testing what is put in front of you, and you will only test it if your mind is actively watchful.

APPLICATION:

I want to encourage you to never switch off your mind in anything you do, but especially when you are being entertained. Are you the kind of person that gets home from work or your normal activities and just flips through TV channels mindlessly? Are you the type of person that is just anxious to open facebook and spend hours scrolling down without a purpose? Are you actively watching hours of Netflix, YouTube and video games? Are you simply a person that likes to sit and relax without a purpose? If your mind has not purposefully been involved and watchful, you will surely end up sinning possibly without even realizing it. Your mind will grow dull and insensitive to the things of the world. You will not be able to know God’s will because your mind will not be interested. Therefore, I invite you to first ask the Lord to forgive you for using your mind for sinful purposes. Secondly, I plead with you, ask the Lord to renew your mind to conform it to his will and be always engaged and alert when you are being entertained, only then you will know if you are honoring God with your entertainment because you will be able to discern his will.
 
God bless you
Pastor Hector