SOCIAL MEDIA LIE PEOPLE TELL ONLINE by Precious C Philip

"O Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you to decide. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil men so happy? You plant them. They take root and their business grows. Their profits multiply, and they are rich. They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you." Jeremiah 12:1-2 Living Bible (TLB)

Just like the infamous Nigerian fraudster recently nabbed, who always had God on his lips and gave thanks to God on his social media pages yet his heart was very far from God (he was secretly living a life of fraud & illicit gain, a life of disobedience to God), a lot of people thank God regularly on social media but their hearts are very far from Him. 

Your heart is far from God when your lifestyle is not in harmony with God's will.

The last statement in red made in the above scripture is our focus in this article: "They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you." If you're on social media, e.g, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...you'll identify this statement as being very popular on social media. 

When someone is celebrating their birthday, wedding anniversary, admission, graduation, job promotion, completion of youth service, child delivery, or any other event or achievement, they would always give thanks to God with their lips. You'll hear things like, "Thank God for life." "Thank God for His grace." "I am a year older today, thank you God." "Thank God today is our wedding anniversary." "I thank God I just graduated or finished my youth service." "I just got promoted, thank you God." Thank God for the new car, new house, new job, new this and new that. 

People are usually very quick to give thanks to God on social media, but the main issue of great concern is whether these thanks are proceeding from their heart. You would see sinners clearly living in sin, boldly disobeying the commands of God, and illegally or immorally making money open their mouths to give thanks to God for one achievement or the other on social media.

I wonder.🤔 How do you smoke, drink, club, womanize, patronize prostitutes, sleep with married men or married women, offer your body in exchange for money or job, fornicate, wear clothes revealing almost your whole body, visit strip clubs, and do all kinds of immoral things openly and secretly and yet boldly open your mouth to give thanks to God on social media? What are you seriously thanking God for?

Some even go to the extent of taking pictures while clubbing, carousing, smoking and drinking, and caption it "Thank you Lord for life". How disrespectful! You're doing the opposite of what God commands, instructs, and expects from you, yet offering Him thanks at the same time. If you were God, would you accept such lip-based thanks that is not from the heart? 

You're celebrating your birthday and you go to a studio or an open field to take pictures with skimpy clothes - almost going nude, and you post such indecent and seductively immoral picture on Facebook with a caption "Thank you Lord for life". Are you for real? Are you seriously thinking? Do you even know this God and who He is??? You took a seductive picture showing sensitive parts of your body God commands you to cover up and honor being His temple, yet you open your mouth to give thanks to Him. What kind of thanks is that? What height of disrespect! You're thanking God for giving you the privilege to be alive to go nude or wear revealing clothes to take pictures and arouse men sexually to lust after your body, masturbate, fornicate or commit adultery??? Would you accept such thanks if you are God? 

The gift of life is the greatest gift any human can receive aside the gift of salvation, yet you come to God to give Him thanks for such priceless gift He has given you dressed in clothes He is very displeased with. Can you dress half-naked to meet the Queen of England to appreciate her for a precious gift she gave to you? Of course not! So why do you think that on your birthday you have to go nude or half-naked publicly to approach God to give Him thanks for the greatest gift ever He gave to you? That is a great display of folly.

Jeremiah said in that scripture, "They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you." New Living Translation (NLT) puts it this way, "Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts." Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) writes, "With their mouths they say that you are near and dear to them, but in their hearts they are really far away from you." Each time you publicly give thanks to God, call the Name of Jesus, and say God is dear to you with your lips but you're living a sinful lifestyle that contradicts the teachings of the Bible and God's commands, you are being hypocritical and God does not accept your thanks. Sorry beloved but you need to know the truth so you can amend your ways and live right.

The scripture aforementioned actually talks about you and speaks directly to you if you are quick to give God thanks on social media meanwhile you know deep down that the lifestyle you're living is not in any way bringing glory to God. You know you're not living in obedience to God's commands, you're not living to please and honor God. You know your heart is far from God because you do not accept His word and commands. 

Furthermore, Psalm 73 tells us of the horrible and terrible end of sinners and the wicked even though they appear to be prosperous, rich, successful and live a happy life now:

"How good God is to Israel—to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone.  For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked. Yes, all through life their road is smooth! They grow sleek and fat. They aren’t always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else, so their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty! These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! They scoff at God and threaten his people. How proudly they speak! They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.

And so God’s people are dismayed and confused and drink it all in. “Does God realize what is going on?” they ask. “Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a finger—theirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.”

Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure? All I get out of it is trouble and woe—every day and all day long! If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to your people. Yet it is so hard to explain it—this prosperity of those who hate the Lord. Then one day I went into God’s sanctuary to meditate and thought about the future of these evil men. What a slippery path they are on—suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction: an instant end to all their happiness, an eternity of terror. Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!" Psalm 73:1-20 (TLB) 

Repent today and live an honest life if you're guilty of telling this common but serious lie on social media: thanking God with your lips while your heart is far from Him. Repent and serve God from the heart by living to do the will of God. God accepts no thanks that is not coming from the heart. 'Lip-thanks' is unacceptable to God. If it is not from a pure heart, He does not recognize the thanks at all. Receive grace to live according to God's will henceforth.

Shalom.