This week, I thought we could talk about a game most of you have probably heard of– Candy Crush Saga.

For those who have never played it (you lucky dogs), the premise is incredibly simple: match at least three of the same color together and they are removed from the screen for points.

But with this simple game come some startling facts.

• The app makes about $633,000 per day.
• The game has 93,000,000 daily active users.
• There are about 1,085,000,000 games played each day.

And the worst yet comes to the news today. A man in California, who reportedly played Candy Crush “all day for 6 to 8 weeks” actually had his tendon in his thumb rupture… just from a cell phone game.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, aside from the amount of time this game takes away from things you need to do like school work, hanging with friends, eating, or breathing, this game raises another question– Could Candy Crush be taking time away from you and God. Could a cell phone game affect your relationship with Jesus?

When I was in the youth group at FBCO, it was not called The Well. It was called e79, or Element 79, which if you know anything about the periodic table of elements, this is the number for gold.

*me in high school, lolz*

Gold is considered a precious metal, and for most, a treasure which made it a perfect way to reference this verse in Matthew 6.

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

Gold=treasure, not a difficult concept to establish. But when you start into:

• Candy Crush=treasure
• Trivia Crack=treasure
• Popularity=treasure
• Phone=treasure
• Grades=treasure
• Twitter followers=treasure
• Making everyone happy=treasure 

you can begin to see how this affects our lives.

The more we put as a priority before God, the farther we are from His presence and His comfort and security in our lives.

The things we do, the people we meet, the games we play and the lives we lead all are a part of our relationship with God whether we want to see it or not.

It doesn’t have to be 6 to 8 weeks of continual playing to be something that takes you away from God.

For me, I have to watch myself on things as simple as spending too much time with my girlfriend instead of God or valuing my performance in school above the love God offers all of us for free.

What is your treasure? Where is your heart? Today, let’s choose to make God that treausure.

Dear Lord, we have sinned and we need You.

There are so many things in our lives right now that are pulling us away from you. Wipe us clean from the overwhelming burdens we feel in life Father, give us peace as we continue to complete the things that are expected of us and help us to do it with Your love and with Your peace. You are the only treasure that we need, help us to see that. Show us that fact every day. I love You Lord. Amen.

-TK