What’s Up with What’s App?

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By Tracy Phua, 23, Singapore

Recently, I downloaded a mobile phone application into my (not so) smart mobile phone. I was hoping that this application would allow me to connect to the Internet via free wireless connection since my mobile subscription plan did not come with an Internet data bundle. Moreover, I was hoping that this application could help me cushion the exorbitant costs of sending text messages to family members who are overseas.

However, barely 18 hours later, WhatsApp took over my entire phone. I watched in horror as the application connected to the Internet automatically and pulled data that I did not subscribe to. No matter how I tweaked the application settings, I couldn’t stop it. For fear of paying a hefty phone bill at the end of the month, I decided to delete WhatsApp barely 30 hours after downloading it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to gripe about WhatsApp. On the contrary, I think it’s a very useful application that can allow people to keep in touch wherever they may be—that is if they have a data plan with their (smart) phones. This supposedly wise decision to download it turned out horribly wrong, but thankfully I managed to nip it in the bud before it went spiraling out of control.

King Saul, however, didn’t deal with error similarly. This King of Israel faced many faith-testing events after he became king. Initially, with God’s help, he was able to make the right decisions and honored God (1 Samuel 11). However, when his success gave way to pride, he cleanly forgot to take God seriously.

As a result of his defiance to God’s commands, Saul’s kingship would be taken away from him (1 Samuel 13:13-15). Saul failed when he began to act on his own, and failed even more when he did not repent and seek God’s forgiveness after his sin was being pointed out. This led him to a downward spiral of sins and failures.

In Samuel 15, we find Saul counting as personal gain the successes that the Lord had blessed him with. And when Samuel confronted him, once again, we see that his repentance was superficial. Saul loved God only outwardly. In his heart, there was no shred of relationship with God.

Apostle Paul’s word summed up aptly the attitude we ought to hold toward sin. He wrote, “The pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have . . .. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right” (2 Corinthians 7:9-11 nlt).

Let’s nip sin in the bud, before it grows into a monstrous plant and chokes us.