How many times have you clicked on a link because somehow it grabbed your attention? We call these images with alluring headline titles “clickbait”. Like bait on the hook for fishing, they’re made to get your attention and the moment you click, you’re hooked and you’re reeled into the creator’s content. Often clickbait is misinforming and/or deceptive so it’s received a pretty bad reputation — especially now that data is used by algorithms to form perfectly personalized bait. Rarely does clickbait deliver on it’s sensational over-promises.

• “Every true Christian needs to hear this…”
• “Get this out of your refrigerator immediately!”
• “This one simple trick will pay off all of your debt.”
• “If you don’t know this, you may not be saved!”
• “This popular supplement is actually eating you from the inside out!”

You may think, “Oh, my gosh! I need to find out what they’re talking about. What if this is in my fridge? What if I’m missing this life-changing truth? What if this one thing could truly and completely change my financial status?” Then we click. And in that click, we find little that is as life-changing as was advertised, but the algorithm now has our behavior and our information to help refine the next bait. We’ve been hooked.

At the foundation of every successful clickbait is the ability to connect with something in the human heart. Unfortunately, as in most advertising, that connecting point is the most base part of our sinful and broken nature. How many men have clicked on images just because it included a girl in a bikini? I read an advertising study that showed that women often respond more to images and words that include an emotional hook. Most effective clickbait depends on our fear, our insecurity, our lust, our envy… Fear of missing out (FOMO) is very useful in the current generation.

“YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!!!”

What is it that gets your attention? This is a great exercise to discover places in your life that require healing and freedom. The enemy uses bait to hook you and keep you bound and oppressed, but liberty and wholeness is available through Jesus Christ. Wellspring has a very effective freedom ministry that can help you get free from the hooks and lines that are holding you; but even better than that, Wellspring can help you be free of the broken longings that make this world’s bait so effective. You don’t have to live like fish in a stocked pond. You don’t have be a piece of cattle pulled to the slaughter by a ring in your nose. You were made specifically to steward all of creation as a Kingdom agent, not to stumble through life as a slave to carnal enticements and distractions.

Here’s my big point I hope you’ll think through: GOD WANTS YOUR ATTENTION. Are you willing to do something about the clickbait in your life so that you’re ready and paying attention for when He calls you to something totally different? Are you simplifying and turning down the noise so you can hear the whisper from the less traveled way? I believe God wants to interrupt your life with a little wonder, but will you be able to see it and will you be able to turn aside in that moment?

The Lord looks down in love, bending over heaven’s balcony. God looks over all of Adam’s sons and daughters, looking to see if there are any who are wise with insight— any who search for him, wanting to please him.

Psalms 53:2 [The Passion Translation]

Let’s seek His pleasure together!
Matt

Matt Neese
Wellspring.Live

• 03/09 Exodus 18, Psalms 68, I Samuel 19, Mark 12:1-27
• 03/10 Exodus 19, Psalms 69, I Samuel 20, Mark 12:28-44
• 03/11 Exodus 20, Psalms 70, I Samuel 21, Mark 13:1-13
• 03/12 Exodus 21, Psalms 71, I Samuel 22, Mark 13:14-37
• 03/13 Exodus 22, Psalms 72, I Samuel 23, Mark 14:1-25
• 03/14 Exodus 23, Psalms 73, I Samuel 24, Mark 14:26-50
• 03/15 Exodus 24, Psalms 74, I Samuel 25, Mark 14:51-72
• 03/16 Exodus 25, Psalms 75, I Samuel 26, Mark 15:1-26

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DAILY WORD FOR MARCH 9

To the fatherless he is a father. To the widow he is a champion friend. The lonely he makes part of a family. The prisoners he leads into prosperity until they sing for joy. This is our Holy God in his Holy Place! But for the rebels there is heartache and despair.
— Psalms 68:5-6 TPT

If you never had a good father-figure in your life, come to the Lord and let Him love you and demonstrate to you what a father is suppose to be. Have you ever been abandoned by the very person who was suppose to protect you and provide for you? Allow the Lord to be your defender, your advocate, the one who champions your cause. Have you ever felt lonely and isolated? Your perfect Creator Father God wants to set you in the midst of an eternal spiritual family. As His child, come and dwell in the family room with your brothers and sisters gathered around the Father.

Have you ever felt like a victim bound to fail? Are you bound by poverty, patterns, addictions, or circumstances beyond your control? God wants to lead you from bondage to freedom and success. Yes, He wants you to prosper.

The Lord wants to father you, He wants to defend you, He wants to plant you among eternal siblings, and He wants to liberate and bless you. The Lord wants to fully adopt you into the Kingdom as His royal child. Why be stubborn and rebellious when it only leads to heartache and despair? He made you for better things. Turn to Him and embrace His wonderful design for your life.