Growing up in the Bible Belt has been a tremendous blessing in my life. I have always been showered in prayer and love by people who genuinely care about me. My parents did their absolute best to get me to church every Sunday, although I am sure that I put up a fight on some days. I was taught to not be afraid of who I am and to always stand up for what I believe in. From the first time I set foot in the youth room at church to the day I left for college, I was molded by one phrase: Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk.
Despite all of our mistakes and sins, we can still uphold a close relationship with Christ through repentance. Our personal relationship with God is of utmost importance, but we have found an abundance of materialistic things that we think can take the place of Him. So many people, including myself, are guilty of being "social media Christians." We have one foot in the door of a relationship with Christ and the other going backwards toward things that seem more appealing.
On social media we carry ourselves differently than we do in real life. We post scripture and pictures of things we feel are pleasing for our pastor, church family, or parents to see on Facebook and Instagram. When we move away to college we go to parties and do things we would have never done at home. This type of relationship with God is faulty, and we will never be satisfied in this life until we surrender all. Being a Christian is more than what is on our "About Me" tab on Facebook or what is in our bio on Instagram. We may talk in an uplifting way about how great God is, which is awesome, but we ruin our entire witness when we do not follow through with our walk.
As good as it is to see lyrics from TobyMac or a quote from Lysa Terkeurst, that doesn't make us Christians. It allows others to depict the reputation of Christians as people who only use their relationship with Christ to gain some sort of popularity. If we are tweeting about Jesus one minute and partying the next, we are not setting an example for those who may not be Christ-followers. It could be enough for the people who may have viewed our post right before they saw us at a party for them not to want to accept Christ. If we are more concerned about what parties we go to than how close we can become to God then we are not living the right way. We can fool our followers sometimes, but we cannot fool God. He deserves more from us than just a social media bio. He deserves our whole hearts.
When we talk about Jesus, our walk should reflect Him. Galatians 1:10 says, "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." The next time we post on our social media accounts, we should ask ourselves if we believe in what we are posting. Are we posting to please others or to please God? Are we walking the walk or just talking the talk?
