Be still and know that I am God

https://odb.org/2023/12/14/appetite-for-distraction

In the present world of mobile apps, we spend an inordinate amount of time on our phone or tablet, just browsing, whether on social media, YouTube, or just catching the news. This is particularly so with the younger generation so much so that pay TV as a business model is now well past its prime. In other words, if you’re still in the business (I was for more than 20 years), you have no choice but to plough on. It is still profitable, but profits have reduced drastically to less than 20% of what it used to be. Thus, if they used to bring in RM500 mil for their shareholders, they now struggle to even make RM100 mil. Partly due to boring content and partly due to competition from global players, with the most significant impact coming from the change in content consumption habits due to the advent of social media and handsets getting more and more powerful by the day. There is still a place for the big screen whether at home or at the cinema but it is limited. Thus, in Malaysia, would you trade your Astro for Netflix? Most likely, if you are not a live sports fan.

This change in content consumption habits may also impact some of us in relating to God. For example, we may not be able to get away from our phones or tablets to just be quiet before God. Or spend our free time meditating on the Word when we are more inclined to browse, to find out what’s happening, say in the Isareli-Hamas war, or whether the US is still funding Ukraine or how far China is progressing in making 5nm chips without advanced topography tools or have they started making the latter on their own? Or we may just turn on the TV and watch YouTube or Netflix or Astro.

The world is very busy, and a lot of information is disseminated every moment, much of which is accessible by us one way or another. When we catch a breather, can we somehow pray and meditate instead of jumping on our phone or tablets or TV? Can we pick up our guitar or play our keyboard and worship God for an hour or two, and pray and meditate upon His Word? Our hearts have to be genuinely still and rested to be able to hear that still small voice of God speaking to us. We need to be still to know that God is God and Jesus is Lord – Psalm 46:10 – Be still and know that I am God.