Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Your Soul is Swiping for God | Historical Books | Isaiah 40:9-31

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

What do you swipe for? Is social media your shepherd? Are you listening for Jesus' voice? In today's episode, Keith shares how Isaiah 40:9-31 encourages us to stop swiping enough to hear God's voice. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Isaiah 40:9-31

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. The blue light burns your retinas as you wake up to your digital sunrise. Notifications flutter across the screen. Texts, snaps, comments. They chirp like morning birds. You tell yourself you'll check just one thing.

Five minutes turns into 10 and then 15. Finally, you trudge into the sunlight like a vampire, blinded, drained, technically awake, but your soul is still dead asleep. Your phone stays nearby all day. It hums in your pocket. It vibrates on your desk. You swipe when you work. You swipe when you eat, when you're bored, when you're tired, when you're stressed. You swipe when you avoid something. You swipe when you're trying to numb out. You swipe when there's nothing to do and when there is something to do. It's not just habit anymore. It's muscle memory. You don't use social media. You exist in it. And what if you gained? A low-grade anxiety that never quite leaves, a mind doled by overconsumption, a soul that's always

on edge, always scrolling, always hungry. You want to quit. You long to quit, but you just keep swiping, drifting down the algorithm's lazy river, too apathetic to grab hold of the edge and ask the one question that really matters. What am I swiping for? You swipe for guidance. For affirmation, you swipe for a sense of identity. You swipe to figure out who you are, where you're going why it matters. You swipe for a story to belong to, a thrill to chase, a moment of relief. You swipe to feel something, anything. You swipe for peace. You swipe for attention, for hope, you swipe for love, you swipe for what? For more? And whether you know it or not, whether you'll admit it or not, every swipe you take is really a swipe for God. That nameless urge to swipe,

that ache in your soul, the longing for more, it's there for a reason. Why? Well, because God didn't make you to be autonomous and alone. He made you a sheep. A sheep in need of a shepherd. Sheep don't navigate life well. When they wander off, they stray into danger. They're vulnerable to whatever predator comes by. And just like them, we crave guidance. We want someone to protect us, to lead us, to help us make sense of it all. That's why we had parents growing up. It's why we had teachers in school or coaches on our team. That's why we have mentors at work. We look to friends for advice.

We check reviews before deciding. We mirror what others do. We weren't designed to figure out life alone. We all follow a shepherd. And a shepherd isn't just someone who leads you. A shepherd is whatever feeds you hope, forms your habits, and fortifies your identity. In Psalm 23, David gives us a picture of the shepherd we were designed to follow. It says, the Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. That's the kind of shepherd we need, one who brings peace, stillness, restoration, a voice that doesn't demand performance or comparison, but just trust. But let's be honest. Most of us aren't being led to green pastures. We're being led by glowing screens, and we've given social media the role of shepherd, whether we meant to or not. And here's the thing. Social media is a shepherd, but it's a bad one. Here's how social media rewrites Psalm 23. Social media is my shepherd. I lack peace. It keeps my mind racing. It keeps me beside floods of outrage. It fractures my soul. Social media is my shepherd. I lack contentment. It makes me question if the pasture is greener on the other side. It leads me beside beachfront vacations. It corrupts my soul. Social media is my shepherd. I lack joy. It makes me chase validation that never lasts. It leads me

besides streams of empty love. It destroys my soul. Social media has a voice and it speaks in trends and outrage, an endless comparison and curated perfection. It tells you what you want, how to think, who to be. It feeds you lives, forms you in anxiety, fortifies nothing. Social media doesn't love you. It doesn't care for your soul. It's a lousy shepherd for modern sheep like us. And here's the thing. Once social media has become your idol, it stops being a shepherd altogether. Instead, it becomes a thief. It doesn't guide. It manipulates. It doesn't lead. It traps. Jesus said it plainly in John 1010. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus didn't stop there. Jesus doesn't leave his sheep alone. For Jesus also said, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

Which brings this to Isaiah 40, verse 11. One of the best descriptions of what Jesus came to do. It says, He tins his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Do you hear the difference? Social media exploits your Jake, Jesus draws near to it. Social media shouts over your soul. Jesus gently gathers it. Social media fragments your identity. Jesus carries you close to his heart. He's not another notification to silence. He's not another voice to scroll past. He's not an influencer. He's the good shepherd. But his voice isn't the loudest. It won't auto play. It won't chase you with a dopamine hit. It won't interrupt your scroll. If you want to hear it, you'll have to stop swiping long enough to listen.

That might mean putting your phone in another room when you read your Bible. It might mean setting limits on your app use. It might mean starting your day with scripture instead of social. It might mean fasting from social media. Not to prove a point, but to reset your heart. It might mean sitting in silence. The silence that makes you uneasy. The silence that social media tells you to fear.

Because in that silence, your aching soul might. finally hear what it's been swiping for all along. It might hear the voice of the shepherd who restores it. You swiped for direction. Jesus is the way. You swiped for knowledge. Jesus is the truth. You swipe for meaning. Jesus is the life. He's the one who can satisfy the ache. Social media keeps exploiting. He's the one who can restore what the thief has stolen. He's the one your soul swipes for. So today, will you stop swiping long enough to listen.