When to Refrain

Dannah Gresh: In our plugged-in world, some people are identified as influencers. But Laura Wifler knows that the extent of her ministry’s influence is up to the Lord.

Laura Wifler: I love social media. I love strategy. I love marketing. I think God has wired my brain to think that way. But I also love knowing that it is out of my control, and that if I practice rest, I am tangibly living out the inner reality of my heart.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemut, author of Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, for April 3, 2020. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Social media plays a big part in shaping the way we view events going on around us. I think the last few weeks have been a great example of that. I’m thankful for the people who have been sharing locally where we can find toilet paper in my hometown!

There have also been people saying that this is all overblown and none of it’s necessary. And there are others who are talking about how we should be even more careful. Social media has been at the heart of it all. Nancy?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: So, Dannah, yesterday and today we’re talking about social media. I know that you’ve studied a lot about social media trends. Your ministry and our ministry use a lot of social media. But would you want to take a guess on how long social media has been around?

Dannah: Well, I think I was a little late to the game because I joined when MySpace became popular. It was “the” app to have and use.

Nancy: Okay, we’ve got some listeners who don’t remember that at all. So that’s going back a ways.

Dannah: (laughing) Right. I think it was right after Facebook. I think Facebook was actually first, but I missed that boat somehow, and then Twitter—twelve/fifteen years? I don’t know. Ten?

Nancy: So, are you old enough to remember AOL in the 90s?

Dannah: Oh, yes, “You’ve got mail.” (laughing)

Nancy: Right. And then there was CompuServe.

Dannah: I don’t remember CompuServe.

Nancy: And Bulletin Board in the 80s.

Dannah: Yes, yes, yes.

Nancy: Oh, I do! But here’s the big question: Can you guess when was the first use of social media?

Dannah: You’re saying it wasn’t Twitter.

Nancy: It wasn’t Twitter.

Dannah: The first use of social media . . . I don’t know . . . the 50s?

Nancy: I’m going to tell you that, according to Wikipedia—so that must be true!—social media goes all the way back to the 1840s with the telegraph.

Dannah: No! Okay.

Nancy: Have you ever sent or received a telegram?

Dannah: No, I have not. I bet that was really fun. I bet all the teens were all about it.

Nancy: Actually, I don’t go back to the 1840s, but I am old enough to have received a telegram.

Dannah: Really? Wow!

Nancy: Yes. I can remember, even in my early twenties, receiving some telegrams.

So, we’re talking about social media. And, actually, the questions we’re discussing go back quite a ways. People in past generations, and people in our generation, now more than ever, need to talk about how to use it wisely.

If you missed yesterday’s program, you can log onto our Facebook page— ironic—and listen to it there, or you can go to ReviveOurHearts.com.

Dannah: We’re going to enter into the middle of a discussion that Nancy and I were having with some young women’s ministry leaders. We had this conversation back in November at a time when we gathered just to encourage and sharpen one another—like iron sharpening iron. One of the things these young leaders wanted to talk about was how we can engage with social media in a way that honors God.

Nancy: So you’re going to be hearing comments from several women. Many of them are bloggers. They’re authors. You may be familiar with their podcasts. They include Kelly Needham, Sarah Walton, Laura Wifler, Bethany Beal, Betsy Gómez, Shannon Popkin, and Erin Davis. 

So you won’t be able to identify in each case whose voice is whose, but you’ll know that this is a group of women who want to honor the Lord, and they were talking about, “How can we do that with social media?”

Dannah: Even though you may not lead an organization or have tens of thousands of followers, you’re still an influencer. You have influence on those who follow you on social media. And I think you’ll get a lot out of this conversation.

Nancy, you were sick that day back in November when we recorded this, so your voice sounds so cute and raspy. But you started us out that day by asking a searching question.

Nancy: How does somebody grapple with . . . when it comes to marketing and promotion of your ministry, of your book, of your resource, so that it doesn’t become self-promotion. “Let another man praise you and not your own lips.” (Prov. 27:2)

I know different ones of us are doing different aspects of this. There are a lot of ministries, and ministries I respect, and sometimes our ministry . . . I think how many pictures there are of us, and I’m thinking, Do people today just have somebody following them around with a camera all the time?

They don’t look like they’re all selfies. I’m showing my age by not actually knowing how all these pictures are . . . But some of them look too good to be selfies. Are their kids always there, and they’re saying, “Mom, take a picture of me?” Or are moms saying, “Take a picture of me?” (laughter) 

I’m talking about all of us, or many of us. What’s healthy? How do you grapple with this? Is getting my picture, my image, my name, my book, my whatever out there . . . how do we communicate what we think?

I think we’re starting in this room with a desire to help, to serve, to disciple. That’s our deepest longing. I’m not assuming that about everybody else out there. I’m assuming that about those in this room. 

But, in our use for our ministries and promoting our books—Mary, your book and my book and a few others.

Kelly Needham: The Risen Motherhood book, too.

Nancy: Right, like they were all coming out the same week! Kelly said, “I’m just not sure whose books to promote!” These were things we believe in, but when it comes to promoting our own things, how do we think it through? Is there a line when it becomes self-aggrandizement and self-promotion? How do we grapple with that?

Kelly: Just having gone through that a little bit with my book coming out, the phrase that was always in my head was, “How do I serve people?” And in some ways I’m going, “How do I serve my publisher?” That was a real factor for me. I knew that was helpful to them. They invested a lot in me and a lot in the project and helped make it better.

So how do I serve them? How do I serve the people who follow me? How do I serve the message I feel like God has given me . . . knowing that He doesn’t need it and He doesn’t need me? That was such a hard tension, like, “Man, I should post about this book I have coming out.” 

In some ways, I have been really helped by other authors that are reminding me, as a busy mom, “Oh, I have this resource that came out.” [Me:] “Oh! I wanted to get that. Thank you!” So that, to me, is a form of service—a reminder.

I tell women at my church, “Please remind me later about this. I need that help.” So I do think that’s a form of service, appropriate reminders.

But even how I was writing the post: “Will this post bless somebody today? Will it serve them? Or is it just going to platform me?” That became a helpful grid.

Dannah: I think when it comes to serving your publisher, at the beginning of our ministry, there was never “Dannah Gresh” on anything. It was all Pure Freedom. I really didn’t ever want to plant a ministry. I wasn’t ambitious in that respect. It just sort of happened. 

At one point my publisher said, “Every time we release a book for you, we have to start from scratch, because you don’t do any name—“Dannah Gresh”—promotion. And I realized, okay, there is a line here where I want to be trusted so that we’re not starting from scratch. That tension is there.

But I think as you develop that platform, whatever it looks like, one of the things to remember is, it’s not yours. I think Revive Our Hearts has modeled that really beautifully! We can watch how they have shared the platform at their conferences. And then just taking a whole week of staff time and resources to bring you here and train you up and lift you up and equip you up.

Are you doing that? Am I doing that? That’s a question. I don’t think I’ve done it as well as I need to, and God is speaking to me about that. So it’s not just my platform, but I want to give your book, your message . . . it’s God’s platform. 

So does it look like a kingdom platform, or does it look like a Mary Kassian platform or a Dannah Gresh platform or an Erin Davis platform? 

Nancy: A question from the floor (and I think I have the only mic left) . . .

Sarah Walton: It this is kind of in regard within the Christian community online, mainly Instagram, just because it’s so photo-driven . . . With this shift it feels like as a Christian woman who’s maybe seeking to (I don’t want to say grow a platform, but) have a ministry in that realm, it seems to always be focused on posting photos of either themselves or their family life, and spiritualizing it.

There tends to be this atmosphere of, “Everything you do in your life is spiritualized! You handled that situation with your child so well!” But most likely they were posting that after they’d gone through the whole cycle of learning that, and it may not have even been that day.

It may have been after five really-badly-handled situations, and then we on the other end . . . I’m guilty of this, too. I’ve just been starting to notice this temptation toward that, like keeping up with each other. Sometimes I’m feeling more of a weightiness for the amount of women specifically I see on that pattern.

I feel, “What does it take to keep that up?” How tempted we are to not actually live our lives, but as soon as a teachable moment happens, we want to share about it. And then, we’re not actually tackling it deep in our own hearts. I’ve felt that temptation.

I run a Hope When It Hurts page. I started feeling that growing in me—feeling like it was expected that I keep it up. What was happening was, in my devotional time, something would pop in my mind. I would think, Oh, that’s a good thing to post! And then I wasn’t letting it really sink in, and it was starting to rob life from me, and I started to feel that.

I feel like I’m seeing that more and more. I don’t know if that is just my sensitivity, if it is my own insecurities, or if other people are getting it. That’s obviously not across-the-board a bad thing—as we’re all saying this is not a cut-and-dried thing. But how do we handle that well? Where we do want to share truth in the nitty-gritty of life? I do want to share truth about motherhood. You guys [Risen Motherhood] do so well with that, connecting the two.

Dannah: I like it that there’s spilled milk in your book trailer. That gives me a lot of joy.

Laura: That was very intentional.

Sarah: Yes, I get this completely. I think even on my personal platform, I would affirm, literally: “Go look. Don’t look at mine.” But if I would post a picture of my kids, it will do probably four times as well as a picture of scenery. It’s undeniable! And the post . . . maybe the writing’s different, but I don’t think it’s much different. 

So I see that idea of a phrase Emily shared with me: “Do I love our leverage? my followers?” It’s from a Zack Eswine quote. He was talking about something different, but this is something that I think I always keep in mind consistently. I think that if you are leveraging your audience, you’re often thinking of them as stats, numbers, people who buy a book, people to heart your message and share it, to spread your fame.

If you’re loving them, you’re seeing them as real people with real feelings, with real emotions. They are actually really affected by your words—possibly the photo, a quote that you might post. And so, keeping that kind of thing in mind, filtering everything I post through it, has been helpful.

Something that we do intentionally is call the women that follow us on social platforms and listen to our show “community members.” They’re not “followers.” They’re not “fans.” They’re women in our community. They have real faces, they have real families, they have real suffering, real struggles. 

I think that’s been helpful. It’s just a mind shift as I consider the content that might serve them. I liked that. As far as taking something and spitting it out: very often on my personal platform, in particular, I will have something that I want to share or feel the Lord has laid on my heart that I think would be helpful. I always let it breed for twenty-four hours, so there is nothing I will post that I just whipped out.

Part of that is, I catch a lot of punctuation errors! (laughter) Part of that is because often the answer is, “That’s pride that doesn’t need to be shared.” I don’t know how helpful that is, but I think that’s been something for me, that the trigger finger is not quite so hot!

Nancy: Good word! Bethany, and then another question.

Bethany Beal: Something that we remind ourselves of often is that social media is a tool that can be used for good or for bad. That’s something that I feel like we’re constantly—on our personal platforms and through the ministry—that’s never a one-day, one-time fix for us.

We are not perfect, and I relate to that a lot. It’s hard, because there’s the other side, too, which I see a lot. People are like, “Here’s my mess! Look at me! I don’t care what anyone thinks!” We are seeing that shift. We want to be authentic. But the root of all of it is just pride.

So I think, for us, this is something we get off-track in, but we constantly have to go back to, “Okay, why do I want to post this? Why am I doing this?” We have to be very prayerful about it. It’s not over spiritualizing it, but it’s like, “We have too! Or else we automatically go in the flow.”

The flow is going one direction. So we have to be so intentional to swim in the opposite direction and really not separate it. Like, “Okay, this is my ministry, or this is my life.” But we need to combine it. Like, all of our lives are spiritual. We need to say, “God, come into this. Help me! What should I do?” Seek His wisdom. We have to pray that and balance that all time.

Woman: I don’t necessarily have a question, but I think it’s a good time to add in Mary’s quote about taking speaking engagements. She asked the Lord, “Is this my assignment, or is there someone else who is called to do this? Someone who is already doing it or who is already posting the same thing?”

I think lots of times you just kind of get on the roll with everybody, and everybody’s posting the same exact message. So it might free you up to see, “Oh, good! It’s already been said!” (laughter)

Mary Kassian: Yes, somebody already did it!

Woman: I think, too, you train your followers what to expect. Someone gave us this advice, and it was really helpful, because I was getting all stressed out about people asking us all sorts of questions.

If you talk about how much you’re speaking, and how you have these opportunities, but you don’t actually really want to go on speaking opportunities; you just want to stay home with your family and do more things; then don’t talk about how, “You can contact me for a speaking engagement.”

If you want women to expect a post from you every day, because you want to be able to write every single day, then you can do that. But if you’re saying, “Man, I don’t really want to be tied to social media,” then just post once a week. Schedule it out. Save a post for a month from now.

That’s often what I do. I only post like once, maybe twice, a month on my personal platform. And it’s not because I don’t have content! It’s just because I don’t want to be tied to it. I will save it, and if it works for another day, it works for another day.

But I just think you have to remember you are teaching them what to come to you for. If you want them to come for your kids, then you’ll post a lot of pictures of your kids. I mean, you might be doing it inadvertently. Maybe just ask yourself: “What am I teaching my people to follow me for? Why do they come to me?”

Nancy: Yes. Betsy.

Betsy Gómez: So I work for the Spanish side of Revive Our Hearts, and I actually lead the social media world. I don’t know, but it’s very easy to think we have it altogether because it’s a ministry, not a person. So if a ministry is posting tons of stuff, you don’t care because it’s the ministry. It’s not you.

I think in my case (and it’s sort of like a confession), the problem is in my personal thing. In the ministry of social media work, we’re working together. We’re deciding together: “Is this good for the ministry?” It is easier for us to come up with a healthy pattern of social media posting.

But when it comes to us personally, I think it’s even harder. I think we need to come to the Lord. In my case, I think that my personal struggle with social media is that it’s constantly giving me the sense that I can be like God.

For example, I can be omnipresent, I can be seen by everyone all the time. I can be all-knowing. I can know everything that’s going on. All eyes are on me. Like you were saying about the local church, it gives me a superficial sense of authority over people, you know, “I’m here! I’m telling you this!” So it’s really easy to deceive people of who is the real authority in their lives.

Something that I need to confess is that sometimes I use it as a showcase instead of a service. For example, if I think how many times I post versus the times that I sit down and read the stories of women that are DM-ing me . . . So, that’s that.

Also, for example, I remember that question thing, that you can do in your stories, I long to do that! But every time, I’m like, “Okay, I’ll do it today.” But I have more than one-hundred DMs that are unseen. So why do I want to do it publicly if I have a lot of questions that are here, right?” So that stops me all the time.

It’s a battle, and we need to be intentional, because the smartest brains in the world are working for us to be addicted to this. So this is not an easy thing. It’s not like, “Ah, I can do it; it’s fine!”

For example, did you know that if you post something and you don’t interact with that post and the comments, the algorithm will not make your post visible? It’s not like a happy face. You have to use answers. So it’s not like you’re going to post something and you’re going to forget. I mean, it’s insane. It’s crazy!

Dannah: Can I say something that I think is practical and also speaks to a theme I hear—is this serving? Is this loving? What is this doing for them? The two pieces of advice that my team came out of in a five days of training, as they analyzed everything they’d received and how we were doing things, were:

Number one, the most valuable thing you can do on social media is live. As we looked at that, that’s what pushes it into the feed. As we looked at that, we said, “Is that possibly also one of the ways that we can interact with them as human beings and hear from them and hear their hearts?”

And so, we’ve been working toward me just sitting down, opening the Bible, sharing a little bit at times. Or saying, “Hey, let’s talk about this issue.” It keeps us aware that there are other faces out there, that there are other hearts out there, and they get to interact with us. And, it’s very effective in changing the algorithms, so it’s practical as well.

The number one thing they kept driving home was email, email, email. It’s the only thing you are ultimately in control of. It’s the only thing that the algorithms are not going to change tomorrow. And we have decided, “There is no ego in it for us!” We send it out, and then they decide, “Is this something I need?”

If it is something they need, they click on the blog, they click on the product—whatever it is. So we’re really focusing on two of those things (there were a lot of other things they learned), not just because they said they’re effective and practical, but mostly because they also help us put the checks and balances in place in terms of our hearts.

“Is this serving them, loving them, interacting with them as ‘community members’?” (I like that word!)

Nancy: One of the thoughts I’ve had over the years, for my own soul and also for our “community members,” is the whole concept of Sabbath. Where does that fit in in terms of our own use? I’m not going to hold myself up as a good example on this at all. I remember corresponding with a well-known blogger a number of years ago.

I wasn’t criticizing this blogger. I was just engaging and wanting to know this blogger’s thoughts (the person’s not in this room, or related to anybody in this room). What if we didn’t post on Sundays? Would this be healthy? And we were talking about blog posts. 

This was a number of years ago, before there was as much posting as I’m seeing on Twitter and Instagram today. Maybe it’s not Sunday, but does every one of us need a day out of seven where we’re not engaging social media? Do our listeners and our followers and our readers need a day in seven where we’re not putting something in front of them?

Now, if we don’t, everybody else is, anyway. That was kind of the thought that came back, and that may be. But I wonder what we’re modeling, if seven days a week we post. And one of the things that came back when I talked with our own digital team about it (again, this was a number of years ago) was: “But Sunday is the high-response day on certain kinds of social media.”

I’m going, “Well, is that a good enough reason for us to be posting?” Now, where I’ve landed on that personally (as I’m saying it, I’m thinking this through again), one of the things I don’t do on Sundays with any kind of social media is post something that isn’t direct ministry to the soul.

So if I’m going to post something, it’s not promoting a conference, it’s not promoting a book. It’s just spiritual food, food for the soul. I’m not even sure . . . I’d rather them be getting that at their church on Sunday. And I don’t want you to feel that if you post something from your ministry or personally on Sunday, I think that’s a bad thing. All of us have got to grapple with that ourselves.

But I’m saying, for any of us, if we’re doing seven days a week posting for ourselves, our own personal platforms or our ministries, is that a healthy thing for us? I don’t think it is. (I’m saying that to myself). Is it a healthy thing for those who are following us? Are we fueling bad habits that go back to this thing?

I’ve got nieces, young friends, in this demographic of twenty-six and under. I mean, it’s like a scourge! It’s an epidemic of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, and medication. And I never see them except like this! The ways they’re using social media, many of these (and I’m not saying across the board), they’re not healthy! 

They’re inane, they’re trivial, they’re self-centered. I mean, there’s just a lot of foolishness. I’m talking about people in this room. I’m talking about some of the younger users (some older users, too). With some of the older users, it’s more the combative, argumentative. I’m seeing among these young people like this very self-exalted, self-obsessed . . . and yet they’re the same ones that are anxious and depressed and suicidal.

They clearly don’t know how to use this responsibly. Their neural pathways have been totally reshaped, and who knows long term? We haven’t had the longevity studies yet to see what all that’s going to do.

I’m struggling enough as somebody who hasn’t had this my whole life. But then you think these people who have never known anything else, what’s this doing to their brains?

We can’t control all the anxious, depressed, suicidal twenty-three-years-olds in the country. I think we do have to ask ourselves, are we contributing to issues? Are we modeling for them things that are helpful?

As my dad would say to us about certain Christian liberty issues when we were growing up (they were way different issues than they are today), “Look, you may have the freedom to do this, but is your freedom and the exercise of your freedom creating (the old term and the actual biblical term is) a stumbling block to somebody else? Is it creating a greater incentive to someone else to sin, who may see you taking your liberty? Someone who may take it and use it in ways that aren’t healthy?” 

Again, the issues were very different. So on this whole social media front I just want us to ask, is there a Sabbath habit that would be healthy for us, for our ministries? Is what we’re modeling . . . If they took what we’re doing and abused it and used it to excess, would it be, could it be leading them in wrong paths?

You know, Jesus said it’s very serious for you to cause one of these little ones (that may be young believers, it may be younger people) to stumble. Jesus said some pretty strong words. (see Matt. 18:6) And not one of us would want to hurt anyone with what we’re doing! That’s not our heart! We do want to help. We want to love well. We want to serve.

I believe that’s our heart, but I think we need to ask ourselves some hard questions about, are we doing this in a way that really is healthy, constructive, life-giving? Shannon?

Shannon Popkin: I just think there’s value in this grappling. I just wanted to say that. All of us processing social media is surfacing in us was already there. These questions we’re asking is not a new thought, but this is new for me: thinking responsibly about others. You know, we’re so prone to self-focus.

I just wanted to validate that this is a great conversation. I don’t feel like it’s done! I feel like we didn’t really accomplish that much. We’re just starting to think more. It’s going to be an ongoing process of self-evaluation and Word focus and outward focus. The grappling . . . there’s value in that.

There’s a Justin Taylor article that I read. He was saying, “There is value in me asking all these self-evaluating questions.” Social media is helpful in that way, you know.

Erin Davis: I just quickly beg you back on the Sabbath point. Dan Cathy, Jr. came and spoke to our team a couple years ago (that’s the Chick-fil-A guy). He said, “Our restaurant does in six days what our nearest competitor does in seven.” I got to speak at Chick-fil-A a couple years ago. (I know you’re like, “She’s just name-dropping Chick-fil-A!”) (laughter)

If Chick-fil-A would sponsor me, I’d be thrilled! Anyway, they told me this little tidbit in passing: “Our machinery (like our cooking machines and our registers and all that) last far longer than our competitors’ because everything turns off on Sunday.” They weren’t talking about Sabbath, but they were talking about Sabbath.

So the answer is “yes,” there needs to be a Sabbath. I would advocate that maybe we move this from theory to practicality. What could happen if the thirty of us in this room made that decision?

I’m sure when Dan Cathy was building his empire, people said, “You can’t be closed on Sunday! You’ll tank the thing! That’s the busiest day! That’s when everybody goes out to lunch, after church.”

Because we care about our souls and because we care about the church, what if we just vowed that we would not post on Sunday? Or that we would not post things that would be moving people away from the church? Is it going to change everything? No, but the little bean in our brains needs to break on Sunday.

I don’t want people sitting in pews on Sunday morning looking at my Instagram. I want them listening to their pastor. So just a challenge. You don’t have to take it, but it’s a thought.

Bethany: Something going right along with that . . . Elyse Fitzpatrick actually shared this story (and I don’t remember which form of social media it was). She was off of maybe it was Twitter, something, for a while. She was like, “Sigh, I’m not going to get followers, this is going to be really terrible.”

She said in the time that she was completely off, she didn’t post anything, she got more followers than she did when she was posting! So it’s a reminder that God is the One that’s going to grow it, like Chick-fil-A.

I mean, they’re closed one day, and they’re beating their competitors. It’s the same thing, you know. We are just the tools and the vessels. We can be off of it completely and gain followers.

The other thing is, inviting the people who are following us into these challenges. I think that’s been something so cool that Kristen and I have done. It’s great accountability for everyone—getting involved in the local church, finding a mentor.

Kristen did a post and shared, “Hey, these are the texts and the conversations I had when I asked someone to mentor me.” Then challenging them, “Who can you go ask? Come tell us when you’ve asked someone.” Or this whole idea of not posting on Sunday, share it with the community, the sisterhood, whatever it is.

Say, “Hey, we heard this at this retreat. Who wants to join us? Let’s touch base on Monday and see who did it. Who was accountable?” We can actually invite our followers, our friends, whoever they are, the community. They can serve as accountability for us as well.

We can hold each other accountable, whether it’s saying, “Hey, let’s all get up, and we are going to have our quiet time” (maybe not 4 a.m.!) “at a certain time.” It’s like, Wow! I think that it can be used in real and meaningful ways to help us, and to practically help them.

Laura: Yes, the one thing I would add to that, maybe, is that I think it sets an example to our followers. At Risen Motherhood, we don’t post on Saturdays or Sundays and we take two weeks off every Christmas and New Year’s. We just go dark.

We’re still working behind the scenes. Most of us try not to work on weekends. But it’s something we set in place very early on. It is so healthy. I want to just affirm that I do not notice, I don’t pay attention anymore—praise the Lord! I never notice a significant drop in followers or one at all, and we do grow during those breaks.

We take a podcast break all summer. Everyone said, “Don’t take breaks!” But we took three, four months off, and we continued to grow. God gives the growth. I think that that is something that we all . . . I mean, I want to steward what God has given me so well!

I grieve that this is the beginning of the conversation. I love social media. I love strategy. I love marketing. I think God has wired my brain to think that way. But I also love knowing that it is out of my control if I practice rest, that I am tangibly living out the inner reality of my heart. God is always working and moving and growing.

I can say, more than I ever could before, that, “God gives the growth! God did this! This wasn’t me!” So I just want to encourage you in that. Don’t be afraid to take a break. I think it’s so good to involve your followers. I also think, you don’t have to! Just set an example that we are there to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

Really, “Don’t follow me at all, follow Christ!” Set the example; set the tone. Show them what to expect from you, and hopefully that includes some breaks!

Nancy: Alright, thank You, Jesus, for the wonder of Your Word and the joy of listening to it, receiving it, and sharing it with others. We want to do that with grace and humility and wisdom. It’s not about us. It’s not about our image, but the image of Jesus. That’s what we’re living for. That’s what we’re longing for.

I just want to say, too, to you that you know how a huge issue for me with social media is just the distraction factor. I feel like I’ve become the queen of distractibility. As I’m listening to this conversation, I just want a soul that is more centered and settled and stable and can read my Bible without picking up my phone!

So I don’t know if anybody else here struggles with that, but I do. I’m just listening and saying, “Lord, help me.”

It’s not just a matter of what our ministry does, or what I post. It’s what’s happening in my own heart. So, I need You, I need grace, I need change. Help us not to walk away from this conversation and be forgetful hearers of the Word. Help us to be mindful doers of whatever it is that You put on our hearts as we continue to process these important questions.

Thanks for these women and how many of them have blessed me and blessed my soul through their social media posts. So I pray for all of us, that You’ll give us courage and wisdom and winsomeness and humility and all that we need to honor You in this area of our lives. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen!

Dannah: Amen! What a helpful, practical, and convicting conversation we’ve been listening to! That was from the 2019 Sisters in Ministry Summit. We just heard from the host of Revive Our Hearts, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, along with a panel of participants discussing ways to use social media wisely.

The conversation is particularly helpful in these days when many of us are spending more time on social media. You know, social media is simply an extension of our words, and Jesus said our words are an overflow of our hearts. (see Luke 6:45) 

So if we want to examine what’s going on in our hearts, it’s helpful to look at what’s coming out of our mouths or what we’re tapping out with our fingers! Revive Our Hearts wants to help you think biblically about your words.

That’s why during the month of April we’re offering to send you a four-week devotional by Nancy called The Power of Words. In it, you’ll take a deeper look at the Proverbs that have to do with our tongue, our speech, and our words.

Along with the devotional, we’ll send you a pack of Scripture memory cards to help you hide God’s Word in your heart regarding your speech. We’ll send you the booklet and Scripture memory cards as our way of saying “thanks” for your donation of any size. 

Just ask for The Words Matter bundle when you contact us with your gift. You can do that at our website, ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1–800–569–5959. Speaking of words, have you ever been told something that really hurt? Hurtful words fall into the category of what the Bible calls curses.

But next week, Nancy will show us something more powerful than a curse! I’m Dannah Gresh saying please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Encouraging intentionality with your words, Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.