In the surveillance state, every word you speak is being recorded either by your own or someone else’s devices. These data are then filed via voiceprint recognition for future use.

The state has a file on you. That should come as no surprise. It’s already being used to target you for ads and for evidence of potential terrorist activity. That, allegedly, is the reason why your “data” is being harvested, whether via voiceprint, text, viewing habits, or camera imagery. Even your retinas have been catalogued, along with your foot print (at birth) and maybe even your fingerprints.

Every square inch of some cities is under surveillance through internet-connected personal devices, CCTV cameras, and satellite imagery. There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Some say: “It doesn’t bother me because I have nothing to hide.”

But stay with me here, and I’ll show you why it should bother you.

God also has a file on you, but God’s surveillance state precedes the present-day surveillance state. You might even say that God’s surveillance inspired today’s surveillance state. The state wants to see all and know all and record all, just like God does.

The big difference is what the state wants to do with all that information.

God knows everything about you. There’s nothing you’ve said, done, or thought that he doesn’t know about or hasn’t recorded for posterity. But God is harvesting your data for your benefit, to help you. He uses everything you say and do to guide you along the path to him and then home to Heaven. He is like a mother watching over every breath and every restless toss and turn of a feverish child. He is the cooling hand and soothing murmur. He wants to heal, not exploit or worsen the sickness.

The state wants the opposite of what God wants. It wants to observe you, categorize you, catalogue you, probe you, and then exploit rather than heal you. The state is like the pill that is forced down your throat to bring your fever down artificially, when bringing down your fever artificially will only enable the virus to ravage you further and maybe even kill you.

You should be concerned that the state wants to know everything about you and is recording it for posterity. These data will not be used for good. Every careless word you’ve spoken in anger or cruelty will someday come back to haunt you. What’s worse, even if you’ve never spoken a word in anger or cruelty, the words you have spoken will be twisted and spliced to make it appear as if you have said something you haven’t. Files will be planted through computer viruses. There is no need to gather evidence if the tools are there to make it up.

You should be worried but not obsessed about the rise of the surveillance state. In other words, you should be aware but not afraid of it. You should be aware that everything you say, everything you write, every online search you conduct, every click and tap you make is being recorded and stored in that file that has your name on it. Guard your mouth and be mindful of your online activity. Have fewer or even no personal devices. Jesus said to be as gentle as lambs but as wise as serpents. Short of going off-grid, never speaking another word and wearing special clothing that makes you invisible to heat-seeking technology, you’ll be under a state of surveillance for the rest of your life.

Welcome to 1984 on steroids.

Be aware and act accordingly, but don’t be afraid.

The state may someday accuse and convict you of crimes you haven’t committed, but God never will, and it’s only God’s judgment that matters.