Chronicles of a Teenage Christian

5. CHALLENGE: Social Media Fast Revisited!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you’ve all had a positive, blessed and fruitful start to the year. As you can already tell from the title I’m going on a second social media fast but this time I’m doing it for six months (pretty much until my exams are over). The last time I did this fast it was such a huge success for me and I noticed the impact it had on me when I concluded the fast and re-downloaded the apps onto my phone.

This time around I want you to join me! It doesn’t have to be for six months like I’m doing it but it must be a minimum of 7 days. These are the rules I set for myself so you can alter them to your liking:

1. Delete all social media from phone and log out , that includes: Facebook, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. (I kept the pages manager for Facebook because of my book, whatsapp because that’s my way of communication seeing as I don’t own a contract phone, wattpad for the sake of this book and YouTube because I watch my sermons and educational videos there.)

2. Only watch other YouTube videos such as beauty, makeup and vlog channels on Sunday evenings.

3. Spend a minimum of 30 minutes every day studying the bible then follow up by having a heart to heart with God.

4. Do NOT procrastinate anything. That includes school work and other things high in priority.

5. Go to bed every day before midnight and don’t sleep/stay in bed into the afternoon on the weekends.

All of these rules target areas that I struggle with the most. The main aim I have at the end of this an in general by the end of the year is to have the spirit of discernment and also be able to hear God’s voice. I’m unsure whether I have the ability to hear His audible voice, hear Him through the word, through other people, dreams, visions or anything else. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you when my fast officially ends. I’ll also be doing food fasting during this period too, I really just want to try everything!

If you struggle with procrastination, fast from that thing that always leads to your procrastination. It could be that you sleep too much or you talk on the phone too much or you spend too much time on social media like me. Get a journal, notebook or even a piece of paper, write down a time frame to fast, the rules for it and pray before you officially start.

Make sure you have an end goal of how this will change you to become a better Christian. Believe it or not, procrastination can be classified as a sin. There are countless verses in the bible that refer to the lazy, slow and sluggish not being successful (Proverbs 20:4, 13:4, 10:4). If you know what you need to do then you just have to get up and do it! If that bible on your shelf is collecting dust and you get convicted every time you see it there knowing you should pick it up and study it but you say “Oh I’ll just do later...” Later comes and it becomes “Oh I’ll do it tomorrow.” Tomorrow comes and it becomes “...Next week after church I promise.” See where I’m going with this? You’re practically disobeying what God has said to do in the bible (Romans 15:4, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 119:11, James 4:17).

I’ll revisit the importance of reading the bible in the next chapter and also some bible study tips I’ve found useful.

I’m fighting procrastination head on and if you suffer from it, then you should fight it too! If you have and questions or need advice then comment below or inbox me, I’ll be quick to respond.

God Bless and thanks for reading (Make sure you check out the bible verses) x