1Cor 15:33 - Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
If you think that listening to, reading, or watching evil communcations has no effect on you, then you are deceived.
Now, don't go and blame television or the media for your behavior. Don't blame your gossiping friends or your complaining coworkers for your bad attitudes.
Don't shift blame and responsiblity for your thoughts and behavior to anyone or anything else.
Now that you know that these things will impact you, you now know you need to take action to minimize that impact.
Even if the evil communications provided the seeds you have a choice in how far they develop.
There is a process in which seeds develop into weeds. They get distributed, planted (exposed but not resisted), germinate (concieve the idea), develop roots (impacts thoughts, overrides your resistance and rationalizes), develop leaves (begins impacting speech and behavior), and finally bear fruit (result in sinful behavior).
The earlier you interrupt this process the better.
First, in the vast majority of cases you have the choice in whether you expose yourself to corrupt seeds. If you are never exposed to it, then you are never tempted by it. The things you see or hear the most will dominate you.
Being that we are in the world, we cannot expect to prevent all exposure. We can still interrupt and reverse the process.
To prevent the seeds from developing into weeds, you must first recognize them as counter to God's Word. To do this, you must actually know what God has to say about the subject by having spent time in the Word. Once you recognize it as wrong, then remind yourself repeatedly of God's view on the subject.
Additionally, you must starve out the weeds by not feeding and watering them. Repeated exposure, daydreaming wrong things, or idle conversations go to reenforce and grow the weeds.
(Updated 3 Aug)
Part I
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2 comments :
In the first part of your post, you noted that "we get desensitized to what we are repeatedly exposed to."
In the second part of your post, you note that, "Even if the media planted the seeds in your heart, it was still you made the decision to expose yourself to it."
So, are we victims, who get exposed no matter what, or are we consiously choosing to be exposed? Maybe a better question is, how can one practically remain in the world, but not become of the world, and still remain sensitive to both good and evil?
Excellent observation. At no point do we need to be a victim.
Perhaps I could word it better to stress that we need to take responsiblity for ourselves and not just blame everything on the media. One part of taking responsiblity is to watch over our own media consumption. The second part is to campaign and do everything we can to let the entertainment industry know that we have morals and want morality in the media.
Whatever we are watching or listening to, whether necesarily our choice or not, we need to be concious of the messages that are being communicated to us.
I'm not saying that we need to spend all of our time trying to find the devil in every book, tv show, and song that plays. But we should be active listeners and concious of what is going on. If it is something that we recognize as being ungodly, then we need to change the channel, or better yet turn it off.
There are times when we don't have a choice necessarily in what is in our surroundings (ie: store displays, music at the mall, magazines at the grocery store, etc...) we can still actively resist it by reminding ourselves of the things of God.
To "resensitize" ourselves, what we need to do is make sure that when we do have a choice in what comes into our eyes and ears, that it is something that builds us up spiritually. Spending at least a little time every day learning something from God's word plants good seeds. As long as we cultivate those seeds, they will eventually choke out the weeds.
This is what is helping me, and hopefully helps answer your question. Feel free to ask more or share your experiences. It has always helped me to learn from hearing how others have overcome their own struggles.
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