Is your intake of news and social media hurting your health?

Have you ever taken note — serious note — of Proverbs 15:30b?

Here’s what is written:

“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health.”

There are so many people today who bring harm to their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health by a daily overdose of news and social media. They flood their lives with negative news reports, and the angry rants of strangers around the world, and here’s the thing: When you constantly pour that kind of junk into your life, it will have a result, and it usually isn’t a good one!

What are some of the bad results?

An increase in stress, anxiety, and depression (even to clinical levels for some). Not only does that impact your mental and emotional well-being, persistently experiencing this will eventually have an impact on your physical health.

And without a doubt, it impacts your spiritual well-being. On any given day you can witness untold numbers of people who profess to be Christians who lose their character, and harm their witness, with poor behavior on social media as they respond to what they take in from those sources.

Here’s the deal, the Bible has it right: “… good news makes for good health.”

That’s why scripture instructs Christians to live differently, like this:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise,” Philippians 4:8.

Many Christians are familiar with the verse above, some can even quote it from memory, but how many live it?

How do we avoid this horrible modern habit and, instead, pursue peace?

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Isaiah 26:3.

Scotty