Passion 2019: God's heart is to be Father to anxious generation hurt by divorce, iPhones and suicide

God is revealing himself as the "perfect Father" to a generation plagued by the heartache from fatherlessness, rampant divorce, and anxiety brought about by iPhone addiction, said Louie Giglio at the Passion Conference 2019.

Speaking before thousands on the first night of the conference in Dallas, Texas, Giglio recalled two events that have shaped Generation Z more than anything else: the 2007 launch of the iPhone and fatherlessness, something that has escalated with no-fault divorce. Giglio noted that in 2010 all 50 states had adopted a no-fault divorce law, enabling families to easily dissolve.

"There is a father issue in the world and a phone issue in the world. And you had nothing to do with either one of these things," he said.

"But yet both of these things have a lot to do with you."

While iPhones have put the world at the fingertips of people, showing both the good and bad things happening, the amount of time people spend in front of screens is unhealthy, he asserted. And the fatherlessness that has transpired in the United States over the past several decades has made it far more normal that a father is not present in every home.

"The result of all of this is that we're all living in an uber-anxiety driven world. Depression is off the charts," and something worsened with drug use, he added. This is so much of an issue that the life expectancy in America has dropped for the first time in 60 years due to the increasing number of suicides, he noted.

Giglio said he, too, knew what it was like to be "incapacitated" for months, weighed down by terrible depression and anxiety.

"But I also know this: God is still alive. And God has a plan."

He recalled a time where God prompted him with the knowledge that a young girl was contemplating suicide while at a youth conference where thousands of high schoolers attended. Giglio had a visual impression from the Holy Spirit that someone in the room had devised a plan to commit suicide, and had written a letter in the journal to her family and the details of how she would end her life.

Continue reading about Passion 2019 on The Christian Post.