5 Ways Mainstream Music will Hinder your Faith

Music is the world’s love language. It is almost like a holiday when we get to share our Spotify wrapped at the end of the year and see just how many hours we spent listening to our favorite songs. We all know deep down that music influences us more than most forms of art do; they create mindsets, friend groups, experiences, attach to memories, bring us back to our childhood, and they get stuck in our minds. 

1. Catchy Lyrics

Ever heard the Doja Cat song “Paint the town Red”? Today at work it played a total of one time around 10am, it is now 5pm and it is still stuck in my head. The lyrics that stuck are “Ooh, She’s a devil, she’s a bad lil (b!tc*) she’s a rebel” .

Those are not the words I want, especially as a Christian ringing in my ears. All it takes is one song, one verse, and your mind is transformed. Every song is made of poetry, a code for a melody, something we hold on to. Jesus teaches us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. 

Romans 12:2  “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

After becoming a pagan witch about two years ago, I started to learn about magic, and it’s not cute. It’s real, and you would think those childhood dreams of magic being real would be so fun and enticing, but it is destructive. It summons a power outside of the will of God- demons. Once you get to a certain point in spirituality you start to see celebrities and famous people doing the same things you are learning to do. Manifestation, magic, rituals, sound cleansing, reiki, chakra cleansing, you name it. Music is wrapped throughout all of it. 

These are the same people making the catchy songs played on every pop station, social media app, ads, shows, and anything that will catch your attention for more than 2 seconds. How do these artists make sure people listen to their basic verses and make them money? Catchy beats, easily memorized tunes, and casual demon possession. Just like a commercial gives us short, fun, slogans to memorize, these musicians use persuasion tactics to influence a society and get horrible songs stuck in our heads. How many times have recent songs had lyrics about selling their soul? I can promise you they aren’t talking about it to prove they aren’t a part of some conspiracy. It is real. Who has power over this earth through sin and darkness? The Devil. He came here to steal, kill, and destroy every good thing God made, and he hates you deeply. He is not here to make friends, he truly wants you and your soul to burn and be tortured in hell for eternity, separated from the God that loves you. Because that is the fate awaiting him; it is the consequence of refusing God’s everlasting, unconditional love. Promoting evil affirmations to circulate your brain all day will not bring you closer to God, so is it worth it?

1. Worshiping Artists 

The song Victor’s Crown by Darlene Zshech has great lyrics that pertain to this idea: 

“Every high thing must come down

Every stronghold shall be broken

You wear the Victor's crown

You overcome

You overcome”

There are some music artists we have a hard time getting out of our lives, for example after Chris Brown the music artist was said to have abused his ex-girlfriend Rhianna, millions of people stayed listening to his music and supporting him, letting him gain more fame, money, power and status. As Christians there should be boundaries to how we interact with this world. There are good leaders we can follow, but even King David in the Old Testament was a great king who greatly sinned against his own family and kingdom. God did not create us to have kings before him, he made us to love him and each other in unity with him. 

When we ask God what idols we hold before him, and he reveals the music artists we worship rather than him, it is a stronghold in our lives that needs to be put to rest. We can not worship man and God at the same time. 

Matthew 6:24 says: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Is following a musician worth sacrificing your salvation for? Is any man greater than God himself? Does God have more power, wisdom, understanding, and love that this world could contain? So yes, listening to only Christian music can be hard at this point, but as for me, it has only become harder to listen to secular music after realizing how wicked it is. This is not a reason for Christians to judge each other, but a reason to talk to God and see where your convictions lie. There you will find truth and love.

1. Time

  Last year, I spent thousands of minutes listening to Spotify music. I spent a minimum of 34 days in total listening to music. How many minutes do we spend in adoration of Jesus? How long do we sit and obey the Lord by praying in our secret place? How many times have we listened to songs about sex, death, drugs and money rather than embracing the grace that saves our souls for eternity?

That is a huge reason I don’t mind cutting out secular music from my life. What better thing is there to do besides surrender to God and focus on the salvation he freely gave me? I run a business called BusyVandCo, and part of the reason I named it that was so people knew right off the bat that I was always working on something. Are we as Christians becoming too busy for God? He took the time to make the world in 6 days, our bodies in 9 months and we can’t spend 5 minutes in the morning, or our 20 minute commutes to focus on God? Something does not add up. God is worth more than all the time we have on this earth, he is more valuable than any wicked song, and more precious than getting a couple extra chores done. 

In business, many people will say they buy time. It tends to be more valuable to people than money itself, because time is the currency of our reality. Without it nothing grows, nothing would get done or change. We wouldn’t be who we are without God’s creation of time. If time is more valuable than money, shouldn't we be tithing our time to God? 10 percent of our day is 2.4 hours, something we can use to glorify God rather than ourselves. And it is okay if all you can do during the day is listen to worship music, podcasts and Youtube videos about Jesus. Let him renew your mind in this modern world. He will show you who he really is when we make time for him to. 

1. Preparation for Heaven 

With all this time we have on earth, after we know we are saved by the grace of Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, it only makes sense we prepare ourselves for heaven. After I left a sad relationship with a man, I didn’t realize how good life would be in the place God prepared for me when I left. I was in shock and honestly almost traumatized by how nice and beautiful my reality was after leaving and finding a new home. At the time God was telling me I should prepare for the best, rather than always expecting the worst. It was hard getting used to people who would help me, who wouldn’t be upset over small things, who were adjustable, relaxed and clean. I wasn’t prepared for hope, generosity, kindness and service. I had put this pressure on myself to live through hell and deal with it, when God never told me to do that in the first place. I love this quote:

“All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, "I am the way.””

― St. Catherine of Siena

If we want something good, the best thing in existence, we should prepare ourselves for it. We have been tainted by living in sin, our sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, but our souls need to be so in love with him, we are like his bride preparing for the wedding. A good wedding does not get planned in a day. Our eternity will be shared with God in heaven, but do we really know who God is? How can he let us into his house without first having a relationship with him? We are human, we are not perfect, but we can sure try to be better every day. I would much more enjoy eternity with God knowing I fought for it, I prayed about it, and I worshiped him through life on this earth. 

1. Agreements

Songs carry mantras for us to recite throughout our days. Positive ones could be like “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures.”... but that is not what popular songs sound like. Songs that have caught people by storm mention magic, rituals, shootings, sex, money, drugs, being your own god, adultery, alcohol, cheating, lying, and that is detestable to God. 

Proverbs 6:16-19

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:     haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

This section of Proverbs is good to meditate on, and remember we serve a God of justice, not of sin. 

When we accept Jesus into our hearts as Lord and Savior, we are agreeing with him, that his sacrifice was enough, that he is God, and that he loves us enough to die for us. Agreement is one of the most powerful tools we have to use. What we agree with creates our reality, our mindset and our belief system. If you agree that you are too lost to be saved, you will stay there. If you agree that Jesus is God and saved you, you will have joy that surpasses all understanding. When we sing lyrics to worship songs, it’s because we agree with what we are singing. We believe God is holy, worthy of all praise, God of mercy, and that we love him. When the lyrics we listen to are filthy and filled with the things that are detestable to the Lord, we are affirming their stance in our life and creating that reality with our agreement. 

Do you agree that you are bad? Sick? A rebel? Confused? A drunkard? Songs that promote those ideas just aren’t worth agreeing with. And you have to stay vigilant. There are codes to many mainstream songs. There are many ways to mention sex without the word itself. There are names for drugs that don’t sound as bad as a lifetime of addiction. Be careful what you listen to. 

Matthew 4:4 says:

“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Hearing the word of God is what saves us. Without it, we are empty and searching for something to fill the hole inside our chests. We are restless without the grace and love of God. So today, I challenge you to sit in the presence of God for five to ten minutes, rebuke all evil spirits in the name of Jesus and wait for God to reveal himself to you. He is always waiting for us. I wish you peace and love, and victory through Christ Jesus, my Lord and friend.