3 Alternatives to tweeting that will help you connect with God
With an average of 58 million tweets sent daily, Twitter has become a significant part of our modern age of social media. Despite being in the middle of weekly chaos, even I found time to update my small audience on Twitter. Cell phone in hand, I noted that I was “caught in the rain” and that Wendy’s “forgot to take the pickle off my burger again.” It seems as if every mundane occurrence has somehow become worth sharing, and over 6.5 million people are doing just that.
As humans, we are inherent communicators, which begs the question of whether or not God designed us this way for the purpose of communion with him. However, with so many opportunities to tweet, “poke,” and “friend,” we are inundated with activities that can easily replace or distract from our communion with God.
Scripture supports that God indeed wants to hear from us, and I began wondering if we should pray the same way that we tweet—after all, prayer is simply communication with God. I couldn’t help but think that God indeed wished to hear about the menial occurrences of our days—pickle-laden burgers and all. With this realization, I decided rather than tweet to the world, I would “tweet to God.” Here are a few things that helped me to deepen my daily communication with the Lord.
1) Praying with gut-level honesty
I pray knowing that I don’t have to hide anything from God—that he wants to hear it all. An example of this can be seen in Exodus 5:22-23, when Moses is harshly honest with God, sharing wit hHim his frustration. Rather than hide his feelings, Moses was honest with God,which ultimately lead to God reassuring Moses that he would indeed deliver Israel.
2) Talking with God continually
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul says that we are to pray without ceasing. We are given countless examples in the Word of people praying continuously before God, as we see with Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:12-15. Although most of us cannot devote 24 hours strictly to prayer, we can pray throughout our everyday activities. We can talk to God while we are driving towork, pumping gas or cooking dinner. God wants to hear from us no matter what we’re doing, not just in group settings or when we face troubling situations. In this way, I have found even the most routine of activities can help foster intimacy.
3) Praying about everything that matters to me
1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast allof our anxiety on him because he cares for [us].” Here God tells us that no anxiety is too big or small for him. He is our father and our friend, and the things that matter to us also matter to Him. In the moments where we feel that few others care about our concerns, we can rest assured that God does. Realizing that he gives attention to the smallest of worries helps us to trust that we can rely on him in all situations—no matter how big or small.
Trying these three strategies will greatly help to increase your intimacy with God, despite facing daily distractions. Just as in human-to-human relationships, I’ve found that connecting with him in new and interesting ways will help to nurture our bond with the Lord. I have found myself happy to be partaking in less social media and instead sending my musings to the One who will always read my tweets, and who will always hear my voice lifted in prayer to him.