Social media is the platform where many are expected to share their personal views, private convictions, and take political stances. When a current event splashes the headlines, it seems everyone is rushing online to hash it all out. We all feel pressured to participate in the conversation, even if we don’t have all the facts or our added voice is not helpful to the dialogue. We open our hearts to every piece of news, overwhelming ourselves with hopelessness.
The danger of this as our commonplace for working out what is happening in our world while attempting to respond through the lens of Christianity is that awe can become bitter, jaded, and overwhelmed by the world. The news cycle is far too heavy, complex, and burdensome for us to participate wisely in every conversation the world is having. Over time, rather than having a heart that is open, willing to listen, learn, empathize, and care for our neighbors, we become enraged, calling down fire and brimstone as our patience for the world around us is much more limited than God’s generous justice. Christians are no longer a safe space for others to find comfort and guidance. Many are tempted to become the judge of others through our words, prayers, posts, and conversations, but we must remember that God alone has that right.
How can we avoid being believers who pray with wrath and dissension in our increasingly digitally connected world?
1 Timothy 2:8 tells us, “Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.” Making it clear that there is no room for anger in our prayer lives. Those who are following God’s way are to stand out in a world that is being eaten alive by sin, engaging in angry, vengeful prayers only heaps more pain onto a world we are called to reach with God’s love.
It’s so easy in a world that is increasingly impersonal to draw tough lines around who is worth grace and who should be destroyed, but thankfully, God alone knows our hearts. In God’s wisdom, he has not allowed men the right to condemn our fellow humans. When our hearts become sick with bitterness and discouragement, our words, even our prayers, begin to reflect this unhealthy attitude.
Matthew 7:1-5 instructs, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”
As humans, we lack clarity when assessing ourselves compared to those around us. God invites us to trust and appeal to Him alone when we see injustice in our world, as he alone can understand His plan for our lives and the true nature of our actions.
When we pray or respond to the needs and actions of others, we can follow a few helpful guidelines that can help guard our hearts, especially in this very public and confusing culture.
Offer Prayers of Lament
As believers, when we see injustice run rampant in our world, our proper response is lament. It’s allowing ourselves to grieve before God when we are hurt, when our hearts are burdened by the needs around us, and when we see many are not following God’s way.
Many of the Psalms are born out of lament. Psalm 130:1 says, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” These true, heartfelt cries of grief are a way to release to the Lord our feelings of fear, anger, outrage, and urgency. God invites us to bring our questions to him through prayer. He is a safe place when we feel upset about our circumstances of the state of the world, but our hearts come to him, holding grief, knowing that he alone can make right the wrongs around us.
Pray in Quiet Community
Matthew 6:5-6 says, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
When we loudly and angrily shout our prayers of judgment online or from a public stage, we are failing to follow God’s instructions for praying. Prayer is supposed to be an intimate practice that draws us and those in our immediate community closer to God. Prayer should not be a spectacle in an attempt to stir up the masses online or provoke anxiety in your congregation.
Pray with Grace and Truth
Our prayers don’t have to be “weak,” meaning void of content and passion. We can and should passionately approach the Lord with our concerns, but as we come to Jesus, our words should be filled with grace and truth. This truth that should ground us is the truth of God’s Holy Word. As we pray, we can remind God of his promises when seeking Him. The grace should be rooted in humility. We must live with a deep understanding that we don’t know best. God’s way is better, higher, and more perfect than ours.
In our prayers, we can lament and grieve, but then we remember the faithful truth that God is able. David does this over and over in the Psalms. He cries out to the Lord, sharing his worries, and then he ends the Psalm declaring how good and able God is. This is a model for prayer we can emulate, especially when we feel tempted to let our anger pollute our words.
Live by the Fruits of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’
These fruits or actions should define us as Christians. Anytime we are unsure how to respond, how to pray, what to post, or if our hearts need to repent, we can go back to this list. As we pray, especially when we pray in public, we must remember that our prayers should be full of love for others. They should be prayers for peace. We must offer forgiveness freely. Our words must be kind and point others to God’s goodness. As we approach our need, we must be gentle. Most of all, we have to control our anger and surrender our thoughts to the Lord.
This is how we live as the light in our dark world. No matter what we face, we can offer encouragement to others because we have an eternal hope through Jesus. We can live confidently knowing God is always at work in our stories. We must trust God to bring his justice and mercy as he sees fit. When anger rises in us, we must surrender those emotions to Jesus and not allow them to rule our lives.
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