Should I use a smartphone or not?

[Belonging to Abba]

I am wanting to seek wise counsel from other Christians about whether or not I should use a smartphone. I would prefer that you not use the quote function so I can edit out the embarrassing information later.

I have an iPhone but there have been a number of times I have gotten involved in sin with the iPhone. I do not have any other Internet access besides the iPhone. I have content restrictions setup on the phone, but I discovered there is no way to block a search function the iPhone has that lets you search for pictures of women dressed immodestly. I found that sleeping by the phone led to my recent failure involving this search function, so if I continue using iPhone in the future, I will endeavor not to sleep by the iPhone.

My approach to using the iPhone is if I get into trouble with lust, I lock up the iPhone temporarily to prevent further failure from happening and switch to using a flip phone with no Internet, and than after about a week or two I start using the iPhone again. However it has been a recurring cycle with me to get involved in lust. I think I may be compromising by going back to using the iPhone. However I think I may be able to be successful in not lusting if I simply don't sleep by the iPhone.

I am not sure I want to give up all the conveniences of iPhone, like a larger variety of worship music, convenient access to email, being able to play chess with people around the world, being able to listen to podcasts, etc. However I have been involved in very disrespectful behavior in lusting after women. My behavior of looking at women and masturbating has come to great levels of evil. Sometimes when I am lusting I have been interested in targeting married Christian women with lust and lusting after women wearing wedding dresses. I have found that I am tempted by something that is more off-limits or forbidden. Usually when I start using iPhone again, I dust myself off from the failure and start with a clean slate, but it's hard to clean myself off from the failure this time. This kind of sin is not the first thing I fall into if I have been walking in victory for a long time and for some reason give into lusting. However I think there still is a risk in being involved in that kind of behavior if I am using the iPhone.

In recent times, I had experienced a clear directive from God to quit using the iPhone, but I interpreted it as a temporary calling, because one time when I switched back to iPhone, I listened to a sermon where a preacher said that a strategy to walk in purity may include quitting using a device for two weeks. However because God did not give me any clear direction that I can switch back to iPhone, I may be presumptuous in starting to use my smartphone again.

I will explain more about the conveniences I don't really want to give up. I like to listen to Christian podcasts or sermons when I am working out or doing the dishes. I suppose I could download mp3s of sermons when I am at the library. I like to play worship music on a blue-tooth speaker out loud when I am at work, and I find that if I don't have this, I am listening to classical radio more often because my collection of mp3s is more distracting than worship music on iPhone. I suppose I could purchase more mp3s of worship music and have a larger music library. If I need a covid test I can fill out a form online, but without the smartphone I would have to have someone else fill it out for me. Also if my car breaks down and I need a ride, I can get Uber, but without the iPhone I might not be able to find a ride. Another thing is that the instructions that came with my GPS said not to store it in the car with temperature extremes because this hurts the battery, so if I choose not to store the GPS in the car, without the iPhone I am directionless. There is also a messaging app a church I go to uses to communicate with each other.

Email is a real issue. Without the iPhone I do not have convenient access to my Gmail account and I find I have to improvise by getting an email machine that operates over a landline phone. The cost of the email machine and landline together is about $45 a month.

However with all these conveniences, it may not be worth having the iPhone because one of my friends said that it would be difficult to explain to Jesus that I wanted these conveniences but gave myself access to sin, if Jesus were to come back.

I am also thinking of getting a Google Pixel phone because Android has better functionality of screenshot accountability software like covenant eyes, but there is a problem with access to a setting that can easily remove the accountability software, so I think this may be unwise too.

What do you think? Should I use a smartphone or quit using the smartphone forever?

 

[Belonging to Abba]

I forgot to post one of the important reasons to have the iPhone. My brother has severe autism and lives in a care center and they let me FaceTime video call him to the iPad in the care center. Sometimes my brother lays in bed all day and to encourage him to get out of bed, I could FaceTime call him. They can bring the iPad into his room but they cannot bring the wired landline telephone in his room.

Another reason for having the iPhone is I can take sermon notes on my Bluetooth keyboard in church.

 

[splish- splash]

Well, if God instructed you to quit using your iPhone, you know the drill..

So you listen to sermons, worship music & the like but do you find time to study God's word even on your own on a regular basis? Remember most of these preachers are just false preachers, who have no rhythm at all, when it comes to teaching God's word.


I'd say mind even the sermons that you listen to. Flee from any prosperity stuff if you can. Study God's word on whatever device you decide to change to and trust in God.

As you make it a routine everyday, you will eventually stop struggling with these things once you properly start to grow in the Lord.. It may just be that you aren't getting yourself, into a proper routine where you're consistent everyday with the word. Listening to sermons isn't a problem but what type of sermons are we listening to if we're expecting to grow, is the question...

 

[EverydayBread]

This feels like a deeper issue than using an iPhone. Make sure to pray and seek whether the ways of your heart are pure, as I'm sure you already do .

If you have a conviction about not using phone, and you can live without it, you should do it. But nowadays living without phone is impossible, at least if we want to work in the society and live out 1. Thessalonians 4:11-12.

God knows the heart. He knows our struggles, and surely he understands things much better than we do. And because we want to live, as Jesus commanded us, perfectly (although we can't), we still try to be perfect.

I personally always leave the phone to the other side of the room to charge. So it isn't next to me, and so it doesn't disturb, but I also can wake up to the alarm in the morning. Maybe, if you feel necessary, you could take your Bible next to your bed. There are a lot of interesting stories in the Bible!

Also doing anything else in the bed than using phone, like reading books or Donald Duck, or listening to relaxing music, or just plain praying, is better. Just tell the phone to stand in the corner!

I genuinely think that as long as you truly try to do better, God is with you. When you really want and desire to do better, God knows the heart.

May the Lord bless you, and I hope that these ideas will be useful for you.

2 Corinthians 13:5-8
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified.
6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,
12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

Matthew 5:48
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

 

[har_habayit]

Hi there.

On one hand, Christ tells us to be radical with sin. If our right eye or hand causes us to sin, pluck them out, cut them off, and cast them away, because the consequences of consistent sin are worse than living without limbs, from an eternal perspective. I think there is a principle there in that Christ treats with extreme severity the reality of sin in His followers.

That being said, I have a smartphone and have also experimented using flip phones. I actually found that my thinking was much more clear. However, it's not really a long term solution anymore. Most sites you log into, especially banking and financial sites, require you to set up and maintain a 2FA (two factor authentification) with your username and password via text or phone call, so that doing this without a smartphone can be tedious. Technically, it can be done with a flip phone, but like you mentioned, there are the issues of GPS, music streaming, etc.

Personally, I think that the smartphone conundrum is probably unsolvable. You're probably going to have to stick with it. Certain functions, like GPS or even music streaming, you can accommodate in other ways. You can buy one of those Garmin GPS machines that you can install on your dashboard to navigate. Also, you can still buy little mp3 music players on Amazon for like $20. Finally, I have thought about actually buying CD's or mp3's online and just downloading them to my devices so that I can listen to my music, podcasts, or audiobooks without having to use apps or YouTube.

As most men will tell you, 80% of the time we get in trouble with online content, it is when we are NOT looking for it. Some ad will pop up because people on the internet know what will get clicks, and unfortunately, the Internet is a place with little morals, and lots of desire to make money using any method possible.

Since the Internet is such an unscrupulous place in most regards (and if a site is free, it has to generate revenue somehow), I would recommend the steps above if you are intent on keeping your iPhone. Try to outsource as many functions as you can so that when you want to worship the Lord through music, listen to a sermon, navigate around town, etc, you don't have to use your smartphone for it. Buy an alarm so that you don't have to use your smartphone for that.

It's nice to wake up in the morning and to be able to worship in the morning without listening or seeing youtube ads. Honestly, those ads make me not worship in the morning. If I see some ad that is totally against the Lord in between songs, it will disrupt the entire flow of my time with the Lord, and at that point, I would rather just prostrate myself or read from a physical Bible.

Also, that is a good point: when possible, try to use a paper Bible instead of a smartphone based one.

The principle is Matthew 5:29-32. If anything in your life causes you to sin, it needs to be dealt with SEVERELY. That being said, the smartphone is not the root of every problem. To the extent it contributes, mitigating strategies need to be implemented.

Remember too that confession and accountability are CRITICAL for any kind of addictive habit, sin, or full blown addiction. Half of men in the U.S. don't have a single male friend they can confide in about these issues. I'm convinced that often times, we don't heal fully from these addictions or achieve peace because we are not accountable to someone else for the sin. James 5:16 says that we should confess our sins one to another, so that we may be healed.

When we open our mouths and look someone in the eye and tell them our sin, it has a way of internalizing the sin in a healthy way. We realize that we are in sin and that we need someone else to help us deal with it. That is constructive, unlike the shame that is just isolating and that causes you to skip church because you are afraid that someone will see into you. Unfortunately, that kind of shame just opens you up to all kinds of demonic oppression, making the situation worse.

Finally, as hard as it may be when you're in a position where you're letting your flesh get the upper hand, fast. Fasting is important because it's a way of denying your flesh. Your spirit becomes more aware when you're deprived of food. Also, I have found the Jesus Prayer from Eastern Orthodox Christianity to be helpful: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Be honest with the Lord and ask Him to put a love for Himself in your heart. Ask Him to put the same feeling He has in His heart towards the very thing that you've grown to love.

I believe that when we engage in a fantasy that is evil, and cultivate it by looking at content online or doing whatever we do to feed the fantasy, we actually begin to fall in love with this content, which is strictly demonic. We are partaking of the table of demons and also partaking in the table of the Lord. Therefore, we should ask the Lord to put a strong love for Him in our hearts, and to help us to look at our sin the exact way He looks at it. If I love sin and God hates it, I pray that God would change my heart so that I hate the demonic sin I now love, because if I love God, I should also love what He loves, and I should hate what He hates.

We need to develop a love relationship with our Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. I'm convinced that nothing but pure love for God can overcome an addiction in which the person has surrendered to a sin and cannot break free. I have found that fear of punishment is not enough. Fear of consequences or fear of losing everything is not enough. No, the sort of love for God found in the Song of Solomon, that is the ONLY thing that is powerful enough to kick an addiction.

 

[zippy2006]

What do you think? Should I use a smartphone or quit using the smartphone forever?

You could delete your web browser apps and restrict yourself from accessing the app store (to install new apps). You can do this if you have a friend to manage the passcode or the parental controls or whatnot.*

If you want to keep the web browsers, iOS also has a browser whitelist ability, where you can specify the exact websites which are allowed, and all others are automatically blocked.

So if you want to keep email, FaceTime, podcasts, and the general smartphone functionality while crippling the web browser, this is a fairly easy way to do it. Every path will require a bit of sacrifice.


* The only problem with this is that Apple doesn't currently allow you permission to update-but-not-install apps, so updating apps requires the help of your friend. It's actually interesting to me how poorly conceived the parental controls for these devices is. Parental controls were certainly not a central consideration during the design phase.

 

[Joseph G]

I agree with all of the advice given. I also find it critical to claim the first verse of Job 31 whenever I'm tempted to linger over an image either in person or online. Resolving in your heart to "keep a covenant with my eyes" will be honored by God if you keep practicing it.