We’ve all felt it, that pull to keep scrolling even when it’s making us miserable and even angry. There’s a reason for it. It’s called the anger algorithm, and the research behind it is eye popping. A Yale study tracked over 12 million tweets and found that outrage gets rewarded with more likes and shares, and trains our brain to get angrier with every post. Add in a Facebook whistleblower’s revelation that an angry reaction counted five times more than a like, and suddenly the hate we see makes a lot more sense. It is a system designed to profit off anger.
But knowing the problem is only half the battle. In this episode, Kimberly Faith and John McLarty take a look at Proverbs, Romans, Philippians, and Galatians. All of these books of the Bible have something to say about why our flesh is drawn to outrage in the first place, and what we do to reclaim our peace. God’s Word and His presence are absolutely priceless and transformational. Born again believers possess the tools to use the mind of Christ and can allow Him to transform our thinking. The world’s anger algorithms only get control—if we let it happen! This one is honest, practical, and a good reminder of the process gifts we have to shine the light of the love of Christ to a dark and angry world. We are in this world to be a light…so let’s do it!
Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith: Dad, it’s good to be back.
John McLarty: Well, Kim, it’s great to be doing another podcast with my lovely daughter Kim.
Kimberly Faith: Oh my goodness.
John McLarty: These are always interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Well
John McLarty: Or challenging to me.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, you know, it’s funny. This is
John McLarty: Step on our toes a little bit.
Kimberly Faith: Meddle. You know? Podcast 106, you know, who would have thought that the Lord would have allowed us in his grace and mercy to be approaching year, you know, we just finished the second anniversary.
John McLarty: We’re going into our third year.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s like
John McLarty: Year three.
Kimberly Faith: I just, when I think about the grace of God in using such a train wreck life like mine, and not just a little bit, just saying
John McLarty: Well, you’re kind of controlled train wreck, Kim. Controlled somewhat by the spirit of God, right?
Kimberly Faith: No, I mean, I wasn’t talking about that he makes a train wreck. I’m just saying that I felt like I train wrecked.
John McLarty: We’re a train wreck, but as we allow him, he’ll keep us, what does it say? Keep us within the curbs.
Kimberly Faith: He’ll keep us on the tracks. We might have some narrow, you know, escapes.
John McLarty: Keep it between the ditches.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Exactly. Well, this is a, you know, I was actually, I was reading some magazine. I don’t even remember what it was. And when this idea about, I didn’t, you know, I know there’s all these lawsuits involving Meta and Facebook and, but I didn’t think about this idea of an anger algorithm being planted within social media. And you know
John McLarty: Yeah. Very interesting. Just the idea of this social media feeding anxiety by something that might be labeled an anger algorithm. Gee, what is that?
Kimberly Faith: Well,
John McLarty: We’ll look into it.
Kimberly Faith: And it’s, so it kinda, it’s funny because I’ve had social media for I don’t know. It seems like Facebook came up and say, you’re fifteen years with this person, friends with this person.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: I don’t even know how long I’ve had it. But it’s, you know, the holy spirit has directed me away from following certain people and really even scrolling like I used to and even caring
John McLarty: Do they call that doom scrolling?
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Even really caring as much about how many likes or, you know, follows or comments I get. And that’s the holy spirit because he’s got me so busy doing other things. I don’t even have time to do that and just using my social media as a platform for positive things. But when I read this article, and I can’t remember the name of the article, they mentioned this research and this thing called an anger algorithm. And I started researching it, and I think it’s really, it was very much eye opening with me, for me anyway, to look at that. And I think it’s definitely worth mentioning.
John McLarty: Interesting. I’ve never, I’ve haven’t heard of the anger algorithm.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So this, let’s just kind of talk about the research for a minute. Because we’re going to talk about what the research is about this anger algorithm and then what is God’s solution to this. I mean, and I’m not sitting here saying you have to abandon your social media because I think social media has been used for a lot of good for God’s glory and for spreading the gospel, and it’s a great tool. It’s a fact of life now. It’s part of our, you know, it’s part of most people’s lives. So it’s a great platform. But let’s, let me just
John McLarty: But it is just and I’m sure there are algorithms that involve this. But so we’re going to look at the anger algorithm that you’ve researched, but there’s also a time stealing algorithm or methodology to just keep the doom scrolling.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Like to keep you
Kimberly Faith: On the site.
John McLarty: Hooked. Yeah. On the site.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s you’ve kind of nailed the idea behind this. You know, the idea is to keep you on the site because that makes more money for the company. And there was a,Yale did some research, and they tracked over 12,000,000 tweets and found that when people post angry, outraged content, they get more likes and shares. And that reward teaches them to get angrier next time.
John McLarty: Interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It’s kind of like, you know, training a dog with treats, you know? And what’s interesting is this isn’t like something we’re making up. This was an actual study published in 2021 where
John McLarty: So the influencer, or whatever gets rewarded with more likes.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yeah. In the study, the researchers actually built software to track outrage across 12,700,000 tweets from over 7,000 users during real controversies. And what they found is when people posted angry content and got likes and shares for it, they got angrier in the next post. And then they, and they didn’t just watch it online. They actually tested this in the lab to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. And one of the lead researchers, her name’s Molly Crockett, said the amplification of outrage is a direct result of social media’s business model, which is to maximize how much time you spend on the app. So, and then, you know, and then what’s interesting is there was a, Frances Hagen who worked for Facebook, and she was a whistleblower. And she actually leaked back in, well, she did in 2021, but it turns out that back in 2017, Facebook changed its algorithm. So an angry reaction counted five times more than a like when deciding what to show you.
John McLarty: Interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Isn’t that interesting? So
John McLarty: And then the influencers pick up on this.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And they just want your time because they want money or whatever.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So they intentionally gin up the anger.
Kimberly Faith: Right. I mean, think about the Lindsey Clancy trial. I mean, that’s just been a platform for a lot of cultural ideas to inflame people, you know? And it’s, I mean, that’s just one of many things. We could talk about George Floyd. We could talk about a lot of things. But the interesting thing was that Facebook’s own researchers warned that this would fill people’s feeds with more controversial content. And in fact, it did. And their own data scientists found out that the posts getting angry reactions were more likely to contain misinformation and low quality junk. That’s the company’s own research.
John McLarty: That is interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, and, of course, there have been studies. Actually, there was a 2023 study also on, tested on X. And it found that the algorithm that they built in directly measures how angry users get, and it actively pushed emotional divisive content over what users said they actually preferred. In other words, amplify hostility toward the other side. So, you know, it’s what’s to me, what is telling about this isn’t an accident. It’s really what the computers are programming, the computers are just set up to build this controversy to the greatest height to basically make more money.
John McLarty: And then we as humans fall for it
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So to speak.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. And their own research, I mean, the research is it floods the feeds with more controversial and lower quality content. The system’s doing exactly what it’s intended to do. Keep us idiots. Angry idiots, right?
John McLarty: Angry. Yeah. Controlled by anger.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And, you know, just so everybody understands what an algorithm actually is because I really wasn’t up on that. I knew kind of what it meant. But it’s just a set of rules a computer follows to decide what to show you. And the computer has one job. Keep you scrolling as long as possible because the longer you stay, the more ads you see, the more money the
company makes. That’s it. Yeah. So, and what the problem is
John McLarty: And that anger is a piece of that. That is so, I’ve not heard that, but that’s interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And what’s crazy is that
John McLarty: I’ve seen it though. I’ve seen examples of it.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: But just on posts that are just over the top angry.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Ludicrous, really. And the problem is that good stuff, calm, factual content, kind content, rarely makes anybody stop scrolling. It’s like
John McLarty: Here’s this great vacation I took. Here’s a picture.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Or just, it’s kind of an indictment on our culture, really. You know, that we would be more sucked in by bad news and misinformation and things that make us angry than things that feed us, feed our soul. And, you know, I think, you know, again, I just thought this was worth making. I was thankful to find this out. So I thought it was worth making everyone aware of. And maybe some people already know this. I’m sure there are a lot of people who already know this. I didn’t know this. But what it’s done for me is to be more aware of, okay, another tool in our spiritual, you know, spiritual warfare is computers are being programmed to suck us into anger and to rob us of our opportunity to glorify God. And as a culture, we can change that. We could change this idea where the good content, the accurate content, the factual content becomes what people want, you know?
John McLarty: I think of the verse, and this is a little bit out of context, but the truth shall set us free. Of course, Jesus is talking about, he’s the truth and he’ll set us free. But knowing a truth like this sets us free from this methodology that’s being used against us to doom scroll and get this anger content. So that phrase, the truth sets us free, it’s just like getting on the scale in the morning. Like, oh, I need to lose five pounds.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. The truth and, you know, that’s always an interesting question. We talk about it a lot because this is the Truth in Love podcast. And we want to base everything we say on the truth of God’s word. Not my opinion, not your opinion, not, you know, the pope’s opinion, but what does God’s word say? And
John McLarty: But it’s good to be aware of this.
Kimberly Faith: 100%. One of, there’s two reasons I want to, I thought it was worth mentioning and doing this podcast about. Number one, we need to be aware of it so that we can fight against it. But number two, we’re responsible for changing our culture. You know, if our culture, if this program, programming is being done as a result of what our culture wants, think about it. Are we sucked into the murder case more than we are the story of a rescue, firemen rescuing the child from the burning building? You know? What do we feed on? What are these, why do these documentaries on Netflix? Why are they so popular about Jeffrey Dahmer or whoever, you know?
John McLarty: And changing the culture starts with us.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.
John McLarty: Point the finger right back at us.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And so, and you know what’s interesting is, you know, we know this. The Bible tells us exactly how to reverse this in our culture and in ourselves. And because really, anger never causes us to have peace. Never. It always causes anxiety.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And I mean, there’s a righteous anger, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about an anger that is provoked by misinformation.
John McLarty: An anger just of the flesh.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: The temper.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Let’s read, I love Proverbs Chapter 15, and I would love to read, just start with a few verses in Proverbs chapter 15. Do you want to read some of those verses, dad?
John McLarty: Very familiar. Yeah. 15:1. Proverbs 15:1. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. How wise is that?
Kimberly Faith: Pretty simple too.
John McLarty: And how many put into practice? I mean, I’ve been on both sides of this equation
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Where, you know, an angry reply stirs up more anger. And you go like, oh my. Why are we going down this path? But then just a soft answer, you know, turns away, like all of a sudden the conversation
Kimberly Faith: It just diffuses.
John McLarty: Turns civil.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. And the verse that follows that the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pour forth foolishness.
John McLarty: I love that picture image of the mouth of fools pours
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Just pours forth foolishness.
Kimberly Faith: It’s almost like vomit, you know?
John McLarty: Gushing.
Kimberly Faith: And I hate to, I don’t want to be graphic, but graphic helps me sometimes. When I think about the algorithm causing anger, the anger inciting algorithm, I think, why would I fire hose myself with the vomit of this world? Why would I do that?
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: You know? And that’s what we’re doing. Because we have to process whatever comes in through our eyes and through our ears. We have to process it just like we have to process what we eat. Our mind has to process that. And
John McLarty: Well, that’s very interesting, Kim, because see, this is something we can control.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yeah.
John McLarty: You know, the Christian life is all about things we can control.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: Make, choices we make.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And we don’t have to let, if our culture was programming itself to really be attracted to the things that God’s word says are attractive instead of the filth of the world and the foolishness of the world, then they’d have to change the algorithm, right?
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: Because they’d lose money
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: If they didn’t. And then do you want to read Proverbs 15:14?
John McLarty: Yeah. The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.
Kimberly Faith: You know, you think about what, that the evidence from that study was that the anger algorithm doesn’t give us accurate information. It feeds on misinformation and which is foolishness. Why would you want the wrong information, you know? And I don’t mean to keep bringing up the Lindsey Clancy trial, but, you know, there were all these TikTokers talking about the husband being guilty. Well, as an attorney, you know, as an attorney, I kind of went through the facts and said that’s not even her defense. If her attorney is smart, and I think he’s probably a real smart guy, why would he have not used that if that was in fact something that could have been an absolute defense of the death penalty or whatever they were seeking, right? But it’s because it’s, they don’t, these people that are influencers, a lot of them don’t even care about the truth. All they care about is likes, follows, and money. And they don’t really care what they feed you to give that. And I think, again, that’s an indictment against our culture, against us. We can change that though. Like, I love what you said. We can change that by every decision that we make. Every person who refuses to engage in the anger platform, the anger algorithm gets to help change that.
John McLarty: Yeah. I think, just to our listeners out there, we’ve all experienced this chasing a story and it’s designed to get a click and it’s not even factual.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I’ll just give an example from another arena here. So the conflict in the Mideast.
You get these, so I’m on Facebook and you get these reels and it’ll be this headline that says, Breaking News, Riots in the Street Of Tehran. So I go like, wow, this, because that was all put down back in February and they shot 40 to 50,000 people. So you click on it and it’s a story from
Kimberly Faith: 2020.
John McLarty: Yeah. Actually February of this year when they were rioting in the streets. Here I’ve wasted twenty, thirty seconds chasing a misleading headline because it’s like the top of my feed. Like it’s new news. And it’s like
Kimberly Faith: And it’s feeding this anger algorithm.
John McLarty: Yeah. Then it’s like, yeah, exactly.
Kimberly Faith: Because anything that you know, think about that. Why do we, I mean, we want to know what’s going on.
John McLarty: I just want yeah. Like, is there something new happening?
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. But that’s another one of those things that’s built with the algorithm to get you to click.
John McLarty: This click, clickbait.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s you know, I think it’s worthwhile, though, to think about why are we so drawn to the flame? Why are we so drawn to the inflaming? Is that a better way to put it? Like a moth, you know? And I’m talking about myself, a born again believer who has Jesus Christ living in my soul, you know? And I think it’s just so appropriate, you know, to remind ourselves because we mentioned meddling earlier. I like it when God’s word meddles in my life and changes me.
John McLarty: We need more of it.
Kimberly Faith: We need more of it. And that’s why we call this podcast Truth in Love because we need both, right? I think about when I took Brazilian jiu jitsu, and my instructor, Enrique Watson, was a all marine, MMA fighter, really talented guy, super patient. I didn’t want him to go easy on me when he was teaching me on, when we were rolling on the mat. I wanted him to push me to my absolute outer limit because the goal was for me to learn self defense. And if he had just lied to me or not been honest about body position, how I’m switching my weight around, whatever, you know, the position of a move, If he just said, oh, that was great all the time, I would have never gotten any good. And I think God’s word is our standard. And I think it’s worth reading to understand why we’re drawn to the negative, why we’re drawn to the clickbait, so to speak. We need to understand that even though we’re born again, our soul and spirit are in Christ, our flesh is no better than the day we are born again.
John McLarty: Yeah. And that’s a great point. So the idea that the truth shall set you free. We’re looking at the truth of how social media engineers this, but then we fall for it.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And we need to face the truth that as Christians, even as Christians in our flesh, we are susceptible to this very thing.
Kimberly Faith: 100%. Yeah. And I think, Romans Chapter Seven, the whole chapter is instructive. But
John McLarty: Yeah. Let me read that because it fits this perfectly. So Romans 7:18-21. For I know that in me, parenthesis, that is in my flesh. That’s a good distinction. Nothing good dwells for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that evil is present with me. The one who wills to do good.
Kimberly Faith: The first thing I think about is our flesh has an appetite, and it’s not a picky eater. It’ll eat whatever corrosive material that we put in front of it.
John McLarty: And no matter how long you’ve been Christian, it’s not going to roll over and play dead.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: You’re like, okay. You win. Until it is dead.
Kimberly Faith: Right. That’s why Paul also said, I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me the one oh, I’m not going to say I’m not going to quote it correctly. But the idea is you’re crucifying your flesh so that Christ that’s in you can live and be seen. Because really, if we don’t
John McLarty: Just for, you know, the biblical concepts here, the distinction is as newborn Christians or as Christians, we have a born again soul
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Which has the righteousness of God.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: No reform of our own. No, that’s just the grace of God. We’re born again. We’re a new creature in Christ.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: That’s absolutely 100% God. But that’s housed in this body of flesh.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And the flesh was not born again.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And the flesh is going like, wait a minute.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Give me the remote back.
John McLarty: Yeah. Right.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And, you know, I appreciate you bringing that up because Galatians Five says this is, it’s so instructive.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: And Paul says, I say then, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and they are contrary to one another. So you don’t even do the things you want to do. You know?
John McLarty: Right. And that’s what Paul was getting at with Romans Seven
Kimberly Faith: I think it’s also, you know, instructive for me anyway to you know, there is no neutral ground. Jesus said you’re either for me or against me, and this is a little bit, off script. But it’s not like anything that you are watching is neutral. It’s either going to be for God and glorify God and produce fruit for his kingdom, or it’s against him. You might say, well, a picture of the sunset’s neutral. No. It’s not. A picture of the sunset is a picture of God’s glory. That is glorifying the creator. The Bible is so full of verses that say, you know, the earth and the whole firmament glorify God. You know? And if we have that right mind, the mind of Christ which we were given when we were born again, then we will think about things that produce peace, and we’ll read things that produce peace and put things in our mind that produce peace, not anxiety. It’s one or the other.
John McLarty: And that is the spiritual warfare.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty:That is the, you know, again, the flesh versus the spirit.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And it’s this mental battle.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And I think it’s worth and, you know, you think about everybody listening to this might be thinking, well, you know, it’s I mean, it’s just a daily choice, and it’s really not that big a deal. Oh, no. It is a huge deal because the cost of forfeiting your mind to the flesh, forfeiting your time to the flesh, forfeiting your, your attitudes to the flesh is eternal. You don’t get back that time.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And, you know, we’re here to glorify God. That’s the primary purpose is to glorify God. But we’re also here to, part of glorifying God is bringing lost souls to Jesus Christ and discipleship. That’s what the great commission’s all about. And I think that, I mean, I’ll just give you an example. This last week, I was in my office, and I’ve really been trying to get up in the morning and just, you know, ask the Lord, guide my path to glorify you in everything I do. And help me remember this because, you know, you get busy and you forget. So I went to my office and I asked the Lord, please just remind me before I start seeing clients. I had, like, eight clients that day. And I tell you, he’s so faithful. I got to present the gospel or some encouragement to you know, on four different occasions in one day. And that was the Lord putting in my mind his word, his spirit. And as a result, I didn’t forfeit an eternal opportunity.
John McLarty: Yeah. So you’re saying it’s an intentional decision we make to kind of start the day and proceed through the day.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: You know, and we’re to glorify God. And we repeatedly say this is not to say that’s, in the flesh, that’s not achievable 100% of the time.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: But it’s just kind of like physical exercise or just staying in our weight target. You just have to try.
Kimberly Faith: You have to try. Every day.
John McLarty: Continually every day.
Kimberly Faith: Every hour.
John McLarty: You can’t just like, okay. I’m just, but here’s the flesh. I’m just going to give up. Let my flesh control my life.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And the flesh and the promises of the, you know, we talked about the four lies of Satan in one of our earlier shows. And I think about how much the flesh lies to us about what’s going to satisfy us. But the cost that we forfeit by not doing this, by not putting what is good in our mind is twofold. We talk about the eternal consequences for others, right? People who may, like, not have ever heard the gospel. You know, one of the people I talked to had, you know, claimed to be a Christian. And I always ask this question. So tell me about when you were born again. And 95% of the time is well, I go to church or I haven’t been to church in a while. And I always come back to what does that have to do with being born again, you know?
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: But the cost for other people could be eternal death, eternal separation from God. The cost for us here is also eternal. I mean, eternal rewards. We talked about that a lot. But the cost here and now is also very steep. Because when we are feeding our mind with things that give us what God wants for us, and that comes back to the fruit of the spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, compassion, etcetera. And the wisdom of God and the strength of God. All those things, you know, we need to really consider that it is a big deal to let that anger algorithm feed us.
John McLarty: Yeah. So a loss of glorifying God, our purpose in life, ministering to others, and just our own personal peace
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And sense of fulfillment.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And the good news
John McLarty: And Satan and our flesh wants to rob us from that.
Kimberly Faith: 100%.
John McLarty: And that’s exactly what this is all about, that anger algorithm. You know, and you could take it beyond social media.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, yeah.
John McLarty: You know?
Kimberly Faith: News.
John McLarty: Yeah. Or just our personal reactions out in the world.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Why would we let the anger algorithm
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Control our minds.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s a good point, dad. That is and the anger algorithm could almost be a spiritual principle. Are you going to be dictated by the anger algorithm? I mean, because this world is programmed, Satan is the father of liars. He is the author of chaos. We talked about that in the show we did on chaos. Jesus, the light of the world bringing, you know, bringing light in the chaos. And it’s so important because, you know, we talk about anxiety a lot. My level of anxiety is 100% an accurate barometer of how close I am to God.
John McLarty:Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: Because God is never anxious. And he gives us biblical solutions to this, to fight against this algorithm.
John McLarty: Absolutely.
Kimberly Faith: And, you know
John McLarty: And where there’s a problem, there’s always a spiritual solution.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: There’s a God given solution.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And, you know, the first one we, these aren’t all the solutions the Bible has. There’s a lot of ways to look at this. But one of the ones that I found was super, I guess, just hate to use the word. It just gave me peace was using God as my comfort instead of social media. You know, we get on this doom scrolling because we’re bored or we’re looking for something to think about. We’re, you know, I don’t know. What are the reasons people get on, do the doom scrolling thing?
John McLarty: Just to beat boredom, be stimulated.
Kimberly Faith: Satisfaction.
John McLarty: Satisfaction. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: But when we, I think that we need to train our brains to know that God is our greatest comfort. And I think why don’t you read Philippians the verse in Philippians here.
John McLarty: It’s 4:6-7. Yeah, and there’s so much in this. We could kind of dig into this a little bit. But be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Kimberly Faith: Wow.
John McLarty: So just think about, we’re talking about these the anger algorithm focused on social media, but it’s everywhere. A boss that’s a jerk, you know, or acting like a jerk. But guarding our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Well, to do that, we need to be aware of it, but then lean on Christ
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: For that solution. And I’m just, you know, look at this, Kim, and this be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
Kimberly Faith: Thanksgiving.
John McLarty: And we’ve talked about that before how thankfulness is such a key to peace.
Kimberly Faith: Everything.
John McLarty: And not getting angry with God, understanding trials and tribulations.
Kimberly Faith: I heard, I think it was
John McLarty: Just being content with our life.
Kimberly Faith: I think it was David Jeremiah, but we may do a show on this because it was such a profound message. I heard him say that the greatest evidence of peace in our life is thanksgiving and gratefulness. And this is, you know, we’re supposed to, thanksgiving, we’re commanded not to be anxious, and thanksgiving is part of that. The reason we’re going to doomscroll and engage in this anger algorithm is because we’re not thankful or we’re discontented with our life, so we’re looking for something to satisfy us instead of being thankful for just even the basics that God gives us. Never mind the salvation he paid such a high price for.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: If we start giving him thanks, we find comfort and peace that is so far beyond our own understanding. In other words, peace is our guard. Anxiety is our enemy.
John McLarty: And think about this. So through Thanksgiving, we have peace. And I like that idea of peace as a guard.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Because we’ve talked before about following the path of peace. And how we know we’ve, we’re falling into the anger algorithm is we lose that peace.
Kimberly Faith: We get anxiety.
John McLarty: So the anxiety and that’s almost so the peace is the guard.
Kimberly Faith:Yes.
John McLarty: And when you start losing that peace, experiencing anxiety, you go, oh, no. What’s invaded the walls?
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. You think about a guard.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: You know, a guardrail or let’s say a guard dog.
John McLarty: Yeah. Or fortress your house.
Kimberly Faith: Or just somebody you’ve hired to be a guard. If the breach happens, there’s going to be a warning. And that warning is anxiety. It’s a gift.
John McLarty: Or lack of peace.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Lack of peace. Anxiety is a lack of peace, right?
John McLarty: And the peace comes from, you know, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So solution one, finding our comfort in God. Solution two is replacing that with something better. And let’s go ahead, I mean, Philippians is just such a rich book, written from prison nonetheless by Paul. You want to read Philippians 4:8?
John McLarty: Just as an aside, if somebody, if some a reader will go through the book of Philippians and just underline the words rejoice and joy or rejoicing, and this was written from prison, right? And it’s just a book full of how to have joy and peace and rejoicing. But here’s Philippians 4:8. It’s one of the keys to having this peace. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there’s any virtue, if there’s anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. So that’s an active mental choice.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Think on these things.
Kimberly Faith: You have a fork in the road every time you open your phone. Do you go and look at things that are going to give you peace or things that take away your peace? It’s like matter of fact, it’s any thought. It’s anything. Like, there are days when I’m like, trucking along with God. We’re doing great things. He’s doing great things through me, I should say. And then I say, you need to watch the news and see what’s on the news. I start reading these headlines, especially depending on who’s writing the headlines because some of the headlines are just, like you said, very misleading.
John McLarty: Misleading.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. They, what do you call it, frame the issue to give you a thought about what the story is supposed to be about irrespective of the facts, right? And I feel my peace is going like, wait a minute. Stop. That’s my guard. I don’t have to read this story. And sometimes I will go to, you know, to an, I’ve trained AI. I want to hear the centrist facts on this issue. And I’ll just pull those facts. If I really want to know what’s happening, like you talked about The Middle East, you know, you can fact check it if you really want to know about something.
John McLarty: I’m going to give a real quick example just because I’ve noticed this in headlines. There’s somebody inserting their opinion.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Here’s a good example. Someone might say, market you know, Wall Street market crashes, and it will say due to Iran conflict.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Yeah.
John McLarty:Then you actually get into the story, and it was actually the Federal Reserve. Some person made a speech that they’re going to raise interest rates or they may raise interest rates. And that caused the crash. But this writer wants you to associate the headline associates with
Kimberly Faith: Something completely unrelated.
John McLarty: Yeah. Something unrelated that’s not even true.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: And I’m just thinking, that’s just an awareness, you know?
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But you just take that to any subject, the current trial or social thing that’s going on.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. And so what the Lord keeps bringing me back to kind of leads to our third solution, which is out of Romans 12:1 and 2. And it’s to transform our mind instead of conforming our mind to what is true. So it’s important to know the news even if you’ve gotta sift through headlines to get it. It’s more important that’s not, you know, irrespective what the facts are, that’s not what’s going to bring you peace. It’s God’s presence is going to bring you peace
and give you the foundation that’s not going to be rocked by your neighborhood being bombed or whatever horrible thing might happen to you. Because horrible things are going to happen to all of us. That’s just part of living in a fallen world.
John McLarty: You know, this think on these things, and this next verse is part of that, you know, the transforming of the mind. But part of that is think on these things. That’s a mental exercise. That’s a spiritual warfare. That’s spiritual growth.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And, you know
John McLarty:That’s like working out in the gym.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Strengthening your muscles. It’s an intentional decision
Kimberly Faith: And it’s not
John McLarty: To fight this fight.
Kimberly Faith: It’s not just reading God’s word. Sometimes in the morning, the Lord just lays on my heart to sing a hymn, you know? Just to get my, because when you sing, you know, irrespective whether you can carry tune or not, doesn’t matter. When you sing something that’s praising to God and uplifting to God and showing your gratefulness to God, whether that’s blessed assurance, you know, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a rapture of glory divine. I don’t know all the words right. But it’s like you are speaking to your soul. You know, like David talked about the time in the Psalms. I said to my soul, Job said the same thing, you know, talking to your soul. And especially when you’re talking back, talking God’s word back to yourself, which kind of brings us to Romans Chapter 12 where Paul says
John McLarty: Yeah. That’s a mechanism of transforming our mind.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: To be more in tune with our soul.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. That’s another reason
John McLarty: Because we’re using our mind to amplify God’s spirit and our born again spirit.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: It’s interesting.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s the same thing with praying out loud. There are a lot of times when I’m by myself and I pray out loud to keep my mind focused. And also because a lot of the prayers like, let’s just take Romans chapter 12. There are, you know, which says where Paul says, I’m begging you by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is you know, when I pray this verse, it’s like, Lord, use your word in me. Plant your word in my heart so that it’s forming my thoughts. It’s shaping my desires. It’s changing who I am so that I will have the same desires as you do.
When I pray that, you know, God’s word out loud like that as directed by the spirit, it’s confirming in a multifaceted way what I need to do to be transformed. Does that make sense?
John McLarty: Yeah. And look at the last phrase of that verse, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Talking about glorifying God, serving others
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Kind of having a purpose filled life.
Kimberly Faith: It’s the proof. As opposed to raging and anger and spewing more hate. I mean, which life do you want to have? This is why the cost is so great if we don’t decide at every fork of the road during the day. I’m not going to fill my mind with junk. I’m not going to be part of the anger algorithm. I’m going to be part of the holy algorithm, you know? God’s algorithm which produces all the fruit of the spirit which produces eternal fruit. The souls of people coming to him. And it’s just so it’s not hard. It’s just a practical thing. At every juncture of your day, you have to make a decision. And what’s more amazing to me is that, you know, this is one of the last solutions we’re going to mention is using the mind of Christ. I remember when I first started studying about this and recognized that we, I had, Kim Lowe, had this amazing opportunity to actually utilize the mind of Christ. I remember this phrase that God gave me. The mind of Christ is a terrible thing to waste. You know, people say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. No. The mind of Christ is a terrible thing to waste because we’ve been given so much. Think about the mind of Christ. He is the word, the innermost thought of the father that created everything. Don’t you want part of that? Right?
John McLarty: And just for clarification, that mind of Christ is in our born again soul.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And it’s
John McLarty: And from no, you know, no exercise or greatness of ourselves, that’s by grace through faith. We’re born again. You’re a new creature in Christ made after his righteousness, made like, you know, the righteousness of Christ dwells within us.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And that’s a resource
Kimberly Faith: It’s a resource.
John McLarty: That we can tap into.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And if you’re listening to this and you’re not born again, if this sounds like Greek to you, there’s a reason. God’s word tells us why that is. And it’s right out of First Corinthians Chapter Two. And when Paul wrote, these things we also speak not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the holy spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And then he goes on to, so in other words, if you’re not born again, you don’t have the mind of Christ. So a lot of this stuff we’re talking about just sounds like foolishness. But then he goes on to say
John McLarty: Bounces off walls.
Kimberly Faith: Right. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. And it says, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. That is such a great promise.
John McLarty: And just pointing out, we literally have the mind of Christ
Kimberly Faith: Literally.
John McLarty: Within our born again soul.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: To tap into that resource.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: If we’ll do it and it’s certainly interesting you said this, Kim. So spiritual songs, reading the word, prayer, singing hymns stimulates, talks to that born again soul
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And brings that out.
Kimberly Faith: It also stimulates worship, which is you know, worship, we’ve talked about isn’t just going to church on Sunday. Worship is what we think about, what we talk about, what we do. That’s the essence of worship. If all you talk about is money, that is what you worship. If all you talk about is your grandkids, guilty sometimes, that’s what you worship. But when the fabric of God’s word and his spirit is woven into every part of our speech, every part of our life, then we have such a leg up. We have such an advantage to living a life that is filled with peace that passes understanding. And that’s really what we’re talking about. We’re talking about, are we going to live in the anger algorithm that causes anxiety, or are we going to live in the peace algorithm that is a product of knowing God?
John McLarty: So just to get real practical here, just think of someone waking up and maybe they use the restroom, get their coffee, whatever. Then the first thing they do is spend thirty minutes doom scrolling.
Kimberly Faith: I’ve been guilty of that.
John McLarty: And then by design, by the powers that be that make these algorithms, then you’re all stirred up and angry. Contrast that with spending the first thirty minutes in the word, singing some hymns, in prayer, then God lead me today, let me glorify you. Think of the difference. That sets the stage for your whole day.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And when you’ve
John McLarty: And you know, I’m speaking to myself because I’m guilty of the other avenue myself.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, our flesh doesn’t give up. It wants us to, oh, well, it won’t hurt you to spend even two minutes looking at what’s happening on Facebook or what’s happening in the news before we even let our soul be revived in the word of God. And I’m glad you brought that up, dad, because it really you know, the people that I get to teach and disciple, one of the things I tell them is you’ve got to start first thing in the morning. And I remember one lady told me, well, I’m not a morning person. I always do my quiet time at night. I said, think about what you’re wasting. Think about what you’re wasting. Saying you’re not a morning person is giving yourself an excuse to not start your day having the mind of Christ, engaging the mind of Christ. And, you know, I tend to be pretty direct because I need that kind of directness in my own life. And it’s true. What you’re saying is 100% legitimate. It totally sets the tone for your day. And it’s so amazing that we get to have God set the tone for our day, not some anger algorithm.
John McLarty: Exactly. And you know, we’re meddling in our own life here. I’m just being very transparent. I start some days totally on that other path.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Like, okay. Did we attack Iran last night, or did they attack us, or has this you know, I’m kind of following the Mideast, you know, because I’m fascinated by the Iranian and the Persian people.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So I want to know what’s going on.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: You know? But, you know, that’s a trap.
Kimberly Faith: It is.
John McLarty: Because then you go, like, you know, has anything happened in The Middle East, and then the next thing you know, you’re doom scrolling on some completely unrelated Facebook thing
Kimberly Faith: It just sucks you in.
John McLarty: And you’re like, wait a minute. I’ve been awake for thirty minutes, and I haven’t
Kimberly Faith: I have to remind myself, what are these facts going to do for me today that serves God’s purpose? And that really clarifies things for me. Wait a minute.
John McLarty: And do I have to know them right now?
Kimberly Faith: Do I have to know them right now?
John McLarty: The beginning of the day.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, it’s not that it’s wrong to watch the news. It’s more of you, it’s very much, it’s kind of like feeding your body, you know, the right nutrition. If you just say, I’m not going to feed my body the right nutrition, it’s going to eventually show up in how healthy you are. And this is about you wanting to talk about mental health? Whether you have a diagnosed mental health problem or not, this is a healthy way to live, you know? And I don’t want to go off on that rabbit because I think we’re all on the verge of, you know, just doing something crazy when it comes to making decisions. I think that we have to, like you said earlier, make the choice every day. Am I going to let God be the basis for my thoughts and his word, or am I going to let something else? And it’s one or the other.
John McLarty: And just to broaden it out, I’m thinking about, okay, these you know, the cyberspace people have this algorithm of the anger algorithm, but now that’s kind of Satan’s MO.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s our flesh MO.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: It’s to entrap us into the anxiety algorithm, the anger algorithm, the jealousy algorithm.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. It’s one or the other. That’s my point. It’s one or the other. And I have, you know, what did Joshua say about choose you this day whom you will serve. And it’s either God or it’s not God, and there’s no middle ground. And so I was very encouraged by this dad.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And
John McLarty: Challenging.
Kimberly Faith: Challenged. I hope everybody is.
John McLarty: Stepping on our own feet.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely meddling each other’s lives.
Are you looking for a place to recharge your faith, refocus your mind, and reignite your passion for Christ? Head over to gofaithstrong.com, your one stop hub for powerful devotionals, life giving podcasts, uplifting worship music, and real stories from real people walking their faith out just like you.
We know life gets busy, it’s easy to feel spiritually drained. That’s why everything we create at Go Faith Strong is designed to be clear, Christ centered, and easy to plug into, whether you’ve got just five minutes or you have a whole hour. From Bible based blog posts to worship music, it’s all there to help you stay connected to truth throughout your week. So take a moment today, visit us at gofaithstrong.com and dive into the resources that were made just for you. Because faith isn’t meant to be passive, it’s meant to be lived, and we’re here to help you live it strong.
Again, that is gofaithstrong.com. And don’t forget, hit that like, follow, and share button for the podcast.
