In Part 2 I shared three activities that you should make a priority if you are to tip the scales in favour of God’s perspective rather than being conformed to the world’s view of things – understand the importance of having God’s perspective, fill yourself with God’s Word, and spend quiet time to hear from God. In fact, there is a 4th thing you need to do. You need to be selective about the things you allow to enter your eyes and your ears. Of course, as you go through your daily life there is much that you are exposed to over which you have little if any control. On the other hand, there is quite a bit over which you do have control and God holds you accountable for those things. You must be purposeful in what you allow in. You must exercise discretion over the movies, the TV series, the books, the social events, the music, the games, the friends that you allow into your life. You must discriminate. These things DO have an influence on your soul and your spirit. It makes no sense to be meditating on God’s Word and then negating the transformative power of the Word by purposely pursuing things that are in opposition to the truth of God’s Word. God goes so far as to tell us that friendship with the world is enmity with God and whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4). In other words, you cannot have the best of both worlds. It’s one or the other. Choose you this day whom you will serve!

I have a personal testimony that I hope will help to convince you of the impact wrong exposure can have on you. I was a fan of the LIFETIME channel on cable TV. I would watch it every night. After a while I realized I was feeling this constant heaviness inside. I feeling of dread and hopelessness began to take a hold of me. The constant diet of negative imagery of unwholesome family life and abusive relationships had opened the door for a spirit of depression to take a foothold in me. The Holy Spirit revealed it to me and I took evasive action immediately. I went cold turkey and cut off all viewing of that channel and other similar TV content before depression became a stronghold within me. The Scriptures tell us the nature of the things we must allow into our minds (Phil. 4:8). I was doing the exact opposite. On a daily basis we are allowing the TV and other media to gain footholds and strongholds of fear, anxiety, depression, satanism, mental illness, sexual perversion, materialism, individualism, hedonism, anger, violence, hatred, envy, (to name but a few) in our lives.

I mentioned earlier that as you go through your daily life there is much exposure over which you have little or no control. That is not strictly true. You may not have control over its presence around you but when you are full of the Word you do have control over its influence over you (Ps. 119:11). The Word of God is referred to as the sword of the Spirit, the double-edged sword. Speak it to yourself or into the atmosphere to protect yourself when exposed or under attack from things that you know are in opposition to God’s truth (Eph. 6:17; Ps. 91:4). Jesus gave us this example, when Satan tried to tempt Him in the wilderness (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). Of course, if possible just remove yourself from the evil (2 Tim. 2:22; Jer. 48:6).

It is your responsibility to guard yourself (Prov. 4:20 -23). It makes no sense to expose yourself and then cry out to God to deliver you or pray every day for protection then open yourself to things that will harm you. Duhhh!!

So the ball is in your court. Shalom.