This may sound strange to some, but a few months ago, God told me to take a break from Twitter for a while. I didn’t quite understand why until I was given the spiritual O.K. to take a peek into the Twitter world for a moment. After a few scrolls, I picked up on the fact that we all want to be heard. And this is not to say that we need to silence ourselves, but we’ve gotten to a place in our culture where there really is no filter when it comes to what we say, how we say it, and how much we say. Sometimes, we talk too much. We want so desperately to be heard, so we put every thought onto a platform in hopes for some sort of engagement to validate our thoughts, feelings, and opinions. The Bible says that we must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19). When we’re constantly putting our thoughts on display for the validation of others, life can get so loud that we don’t hear God when He speaks to us. Social media has a way of activating the parts of us we try to hide underneath the facade of surface-level happiness. It has a way of distracting us from our reality and being honest about the state of our spirit. These platforms can incubate a character that contradicts the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

“Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”– Titus 3:1-5

The more I embrace God’s grace for me, the more I find myself trying to find a way to extend that same grace in all that I do. One of the ways we can do this is by speaking words of edification on our platforms. Once you give your life to Christ, you allow your life to be God’s stage; so we must ask ourselves, “How do the things we say lead others to perceive God?” One of my Sunday school teachers used to always say, “Death and life is in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). That means that our words have value! Everything you say holds weight, and it can either uplift or tear down. Why use your voice as a tool to add to the noise in the world when you could use it to amplify the sound of heaven? When I look back on some of the things I’d post or even now when I fight the urge to comment on something I see, the Holy Spirit leads me to ask myself if what I am about to say reflects God’s character or glorifies Him and to be quite honest, I find myself pressing ‘discard’ more often than I’d like to admit.

If you’ve ever struggled with feeling silenced which in turn has led you to fulfill the fleshly urge to always say your piece, or maybe you feel as though you have to constantly engage in the conversations you see happening, I want to challenge you to pray more than you post. Talk to God more than you tweet. The more you engage in conversation with Him, the less you feel you need to say to everyone else. Once you know that God has heard your voice, you’ll want to post your fears, frustrations, and life fantasies less often (Psalm 34:3-5). Your words have power, your words have value, and it’s imperative that what we say edifies others (1 Thessalonians 5:11) For when we speak of the things that glorify God, we will never have too much to say.