The Scroll Shapes the Soul
In 2014, researchers did an experiment with Facebook. They took 700,000 people and quietly changed their news feeds. For some people, they showed more negative posts. For others, they showed more positive posts. Then they watched what happened.
The results were clear. People who saw more negative content started posting more negatively themselves. People who saw more positive content started posting more positively. The change was so obvious that the scientific community said the experiment was unethical. These people had their emotions manipulated without even knowing it.
Here’s the truth that study proved: what you feed your mind will eventually impact your heart and your actions. Or to put it another way, the scroll shapes the soul.
God Cares About Your Mind
God cares deeply about what goes on inside your mind. In the Shema, the ancient Jewish prayer, God says to love him with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. When Jesus quoted this, he said it a bit differently: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Your mind is amazing. Think about a child catching a ball. Their body moves before the ball even gets close. Somehow they know exactly where it’s going to be. They can’t explain the math or the physics, but they just know. God created your mind to do incredible things.
And because he created it, he wants you to love him with it. He cares about what you think about. He cares about what you allow your mind to dwell on. He cares about your plans and your reasoning.
Our Thoughts Aren’t Always Our Own
Here’s something important to understand. Our thoughts and feelings aren’t always our own. Remember those Facebook users? They felt certain emotions and probably thought those feelings were coming from inside themselves. But really, someone behind the scenes was controlling what they saw and shaping how they felt.
We’re being influenced all the time. By what we watch. By what we read. By who we listen to. By what we scroll through on our phones. And often, we don’t even realize it’s happening.
There was another experiment where researchers had students unscramble sentences. Some sentences had words like “old,” “Florida,” “gray,” and “wrinkle” hidden in them. Other students got different sentences. Then they measured how fast the students walked down the hall afterward. The students who saw the “old” words walked slower. They didn’t know why. They didn’t even notice the pattern. But those words affected their behavior.
This is called priming. It’s when something gets put into your head and it changes how you act, even when you don’t realize it.
All Things Are Permitted, But…
Paul wrote to the Corinthians about a phrase they were using: “All things are permitted for me.” They had found freedom in Christ. They were no longer bound by all the old religious rules. And they were celebrating that freedom.
But Paul added something important. “All things are permitted for me, but not all things are beneficial. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.”
Just because something isn’t a sin doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Just because you’re allowed to do something doesn’t mean you should. There are things in this world that want to dominate you. They want to control your thinking and your behavior. And when we’re not careful, we give them that power.
Think about it like candy. Candy isn’t evil. But if you eat nothing but candy, you’re not going to be healthy. You might even get sick. Some families keep no candy in the house. Others keep it in one spot and eat it in moderation. Others buy it by the pound and eat it constantly.
The same is true with what we consume mentally. Some of it is harmless in small amounts. Some of it is actively harmful. And some of it might seem innocent but will slowly dominate us if we’re not careful.
Think on These Things
So what should we consume? Paul gives us guidance in Philippians 4:8. He lists things like: true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good, praiseworthy. Then he says, “Think on these things.”
But before that, he says something really important. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
We don’t deal with anxiety by willpower. We can’t just decide one day to stop being anxious and make it happen. If we could do that, we wouldn’t need grace. We wouldn’t need God’s help.
Instead, we bring God into the situation. We don’t try to handle it on our own. We say, “God, I need your help. I need you to transform my mind. I’m not going to try to think my way out of this or willpower my way through it. I need you.”
When we do that, Paul says we receive “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.” It’s a peace we couldn’t create on our own. It’s a peace that doesn’t even make sense given our circumstances. But it guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
Be On Guard
Jesus said it clearly. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down.” He had just told the disciples about scary things that would happen. Persecution. Betrayal. The destruction of Jerusalem. It was a lot to process.
And then he said, “Don’t let this weigh your heart down. Don’t turn to things that waste you away or dull the pain. Don’t get caught up in worrying about life. Be alert. Pray for strength.”
We need to exercise spiritual discernment about what we let into our minds. That means being aware and making conscious choices. Not every conversation is good for you. Not every show is worth watching. Not every social media account is worth following. Not every book is worth reading.
I’m not saying everything is from the devil. I’m not trying to make you paranoid. But I am saying we need to be aware. We’re going to be influenced. We can’t avoid that. But we can choose what influences us.
What Will You Choose?
Here’s the practical application. Look at what you’re consuming. Your social media feeds. Your conversations. Your entertainment. Your news sources. What is it all doing to your mind? What is it teaching you to think about? What emotions is it creating in you?
Then ask yourself: Is this nourishing me or just edible? Is this helping me love God more or pulling me away from him? Is this giving me strength or dominating me?
God created your mind. He wants you to love him with it. He wants to transform you by renewing your mind. He wants you to present yourself as a living sacrifice, which Paul says is your “reasonable act of worship.”
The scroll shapes the soul. So choose carefully what you scroll through. Feed your mind on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy. Bring God into your anxieties instead of trying to handle them alone. Exercise discernment about what you consume.
And when you do, you’ll find that what comes out of you will reflect what you’ve been putting in. You’ll find your appetites changing. You’ll want the meat of the word instead of the candy of the world. You’ll find yourself being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
What are you feeding your mind today?