“Musing” is opposite from “amusement.”
“Amuse.”
Today, everyone is looking to amuse themselves.
Amen.
They turn on their television because they want to be amused.
They are engaged in social media because there is
a constant craving to be amused.
And it is a society, the current world is a society that is
running for amusement.
And it's like, you know, they want a dopamine release.
Dopamine chemicals are those chemicals that make you feel good.
And every time you win a game, you feel good.
Right?
And now there's a dopamine craze.
Everyone wants to be entertained. They want to be entertained.
“Please entertain me. Please entertain me.”
“Please entertain me.”
Now the scientists are telling us— In fact, there's a word and
a lot of people are suffering from this now.
They are telling us about this word “anhedonia.”
“Anhedonia.”
“Hedonia” means “pleasure.”
“Anhedonia” is a condition where
people cannot experience pleasure anymore.
An inability to experience pleasure.
Why?
More and more studies show that the more you
indulge in this dopamine, the more you indulge in this
release of feel-good chemicals, the more you look forward
to be entertained, to amuse yourself,
you can come to a place of anhedonia,
Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure.
And that's why God’s Word tells us that at times,
you need to exercise self-control.
Some things are good, like eating.
Amen.
It is good to eat. No problem.
Amen.
A lot of things in life are okay. The smartphone is good.
Amen.
But you know, it's something else when you are addicted to it.
If you're addicted to eating, you're addicted to social media.
Amen.
That's when you have an addiction to hedonism,
which is pleasure.
Anhedonia with an “a” in front, always negates the pleasure,
which means the lack of pleasure, the inability to experience pleasure.
So a lot of people are suffering from anhedonia.
The Bible says the more you abstain, it doesn't mean you abstain
so that you never have pleasure anymore.
God says when you abstain at the right time,
the pleasure is going to be great.
Amen.
So God says even for food.
If you’re eating all the time and never fasting,
If you never have a lifestyle that is fasted or
controlling your eating, you cannot enjoy food all the time.
If you are pursuing after the pleasures of eating.
Amen.
Now I know this can be controversial for a lot of people,
but without controversy, the Word of God is true.
Amen.
But the Word of God tells us, clearly that:
“While I was meditating, the fire burned.”
Amen.
And today we have lost that art of musing.
“While I was musing, while I was musing over”
“the truth of God's Word, the fire burned.”
“Then I spoke with my tongue.”
That's when there's power in your words.
Amen.
We have forgotten this art of silent contemplation,
or just muttering to ourselves.
When you're muttering, you're not muttering to someone.
They can't hear you.
They will say: "Speak up!" Right?
Amen.
Muttering is always to yourself and the word “hagah” in Hebrew,
means to “mutter to yourself.”
So you're muttering to yourself.
Amen.
But instead the opposite has happened.
Instead of musing, we are amusing ourselves.
We have an “a” in front in the English word.
That “a” in front of “muse” negates the “musing.”
I thought it's very interesting when I realized the word “amuse”
comes from the word “muse” actually, which is “meditate.”
Contemplate.
Amen.
And amuse means there's no time for contemplation
because somebody else is thinking for you.
Somebody else is entertaining you.
Somebody else is being creative for you and you
just lie down there and you just take in, or you are
looking at your phone and you are just going from
one page after another.
And you're on social media.
I'm not against social media.
Listen carefully, my friend.
But I think that in the context of what God is saying,
I feel like God is saying to me that the now word is be free
from the bondage of social media.
Amen.
Now I said: “Bondage.”
You can use social media as a tool, even for your job
and some work and all that, to bring attention to
what you're doing.
Amen.
It is fine.
But it is something else when you have to answer
emails on your phone.
You can answer emails on your laptop.
When you go home, when you're working
during your working time, but to bring your work everywhere?
That is a bondage.
Amen.
Every time there's a ping, you got to look at it.
Every time someone sends you a message,
you have to look at it.
And you're spending time with your children,
you're spending time with your wife and
you are occupied with this.
My friend, you are amusing yourself.
Especially with those games and you are distracting yourself.
You are actually amusing yourself.
Like playing games and looking at social media posts.
That's a form of amusement.
That's amusement that people are involved in today,
but you can actually be in bondage and feel like
you are missing out.
You feel like: “If I don't get back, I'll be lost.”
My friend, it is not true.
Even when you have a “bored” moment
of nothing to do, those are actually moments
where if you allow yourself to be bored, you allow yourself
to contemplate, you allow yourself to muse,
creative thoughts will rise up.
Amen.
In fact, that little muscle called “creativity” that has been
lying dormant, will start to be used.
And when you meditate on God's Word—
the Bible says: “Meditate on God's Word.”
Imagine. “Why God's Word?”
“Pastor Prince, I'm so busy. I have to be involved…”
No, friend, you have a fear of missing out.
Amen.
It's not that you have to be updated all the time.
Amen.
I'm talking about the bondage.
I'm not talking about social media and the right use of it.
The Bible says that: “All things are lawful unto me,”
And this is where social media comes in.
“All things are lawful unto me but I will not be brought under”
“the power of any.”
“All things are lawful unto me, but all things edify not.”
“All things are lawful unto me,”
“but I'll not be brought under the power of any.”
So it's one thing to be using social media.
It is another thing to be brought under its power.
Amen.
You see people all the time and you know, they are
socializing and everyone is looking at their phone.
Or they are out with their children and they are
looking at the phone.
Amen.
And their little child is on the swing and
they're looking at their phone.
Spend that time! Live in the moment!
Live in the present! Enjoy the now!
Hallelujah. Amen.
These are gifts and all too soon before you know it,
they grow up.
And you're modeling before them the importance of
looking at your phone and friend, like I said,
I'm not against social media per se.
I'm against the bondage it has brought on people.
To the point that now, there's a constant desire
to be amused, to be entertained, to focus on the pursuit of pleasure
until they have no more pleasure left or they have
lost the capacity to enjoy pleasure.
We need to teach our children delayed gratification.
Amen.
Some things you give up now, but you enjoy greatly later.
Amen.
Everything the devil does is to distract us,
especially from God's Word.
And there's a lot of even legitimate things
to distract us today.
And friend, if you find that you are losing the ability
to enjoy things that you used to enjoy,
or pleasure doesn't seem pleasurable anymore.
Perhaps you're suffering from some form of anhedonia
and anhedonia is a condition that can grow on you
without you even realizing.
All of a sudden, you will find that you get bored,
you get cynical with life.
And the Lord loves you. The Lord wants to come into your home,
not to take from you, but to give to you.
Amen.
So shut down everything else that would distract you.
Stop looking and stop exposing yourself to all
your friends’ carefully curated, positive portrayals of their life
on social media.
That will only leave you depressed, feeling isolated.
Feeling like you've been shortchanged, but
my friend, switch all this off.
Don't be distracted.
When the ping comes in,
you don't always have to answer, especially when you're with
people that you love.
Amen.
Or you're doing something that is important to you.
Maybe you are learning to play the guitar.
Start getting back into some hobbies.
After a while,
trying to break that bondage, it is like detoxing. Okay?
Or you know, when there's a panic attack, you feel:
“What would I do without a phone?”
“And the fear of missing out is coming in and”
“I don't know what to do.”
Friend, calm down.
Amen.
It's just a detox process.
Spend time bringing up that word of Scripture.
Meditate on it day and night.
Amen. Meditate. Chew on it.
In the nighttime, if you can’t sleep, chew on it.
And the Word of God will release health, life, prosperity into your life.