Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings Psalm 17:8
Imagine sitting next to your child on the couch. You know something is wrong, in fact you know every detail of the situation and yet, your child sits on the couch unwilling to allow you to touch them, to hug them, to talk with them, or comfort them in anyway. Your heart breaks and aches to take away their pain and suffering and yet, you can’t. You feel your child’s body tremble next to you as sobs escape, “I’m so alone. No one cares about me.” and their precious body rocks back and forth writhing in emotional pain. This scenario tears your heart out, doesn’t it?
Now picture that hurting child is you and the parent is your heavenly Father sitting right beside you, knowing all your yucky details, longing to comfort you in complete perfection and yet, He hears us cry out, “I am so alone. No one cares about me.” Chilling isn’t it? Yet, it happens!
Feeling alone in our distraught hearts is a lie we tell ourselves. When we allow the lie of loneliness to percolate in our minds and hearts it grows and grows. Lies have a way of doing that, don’t they?
We’re never truly alone. Oh I know, I can hear you saying, “Yeah but..” because I feel the same way. I get lonely and then I let it build up walls. I stop talking on the phone, reaching out in person, and isolate myself so that I am truly alone with myself and my icky thoughts. I grab those ugly lies and I welcome them in. I feed them, coddle them, and allow them to get comfy. I’m a pretty good hostess.
Sometimes I’m not even sure how the lie of loneliness gets in. Maybe when I felt slighted because I wasn’t invited to something with friends. Or when someone criticized something about me. What ever it is, it takes practice to recognize those negative thoughts and feelings before we allow them to take up residency and have full access to our hearts and minds.
The lie of loneliness (and any other lie) should not be fed. Treat it like you would an intruder trying to invade your home. You lock the doors and call the cops. In this case, you focus on positive thoughts, scriptures that are truth, and tell the Lord what you are struggling with. Turn off the tv and turn on some praise music. When we are trying to bring our thoughts back to a positive place, we often need to remove any chance of negativity getting in. This is where limiting media can really help. After all, do you really need to see one more air brushed commercial of some perfect woman?
If you are feeling lonely, take a good look as to why. Have you isolated yourself from others? Are you answering phone calls? When was the last time you left the house with a friend to go do something fun? Are you eating foods that might make you feel low? Sugar does this to me. Are you participating in a sin that you know you need to let go of? Are you getting any exercise (oh trust me this is one I majorly struggle with). Make a few positive changes and see if it doesn’t help you smash the lie into smithereens.
I may sound like a broken record but that’s okay because I think this is something we need to get. Talk to the Lord about what you are experiencing. If you can, speak out loud. There’s a powerful release that happens when we finally tell the truth. Pray for help. Find some scriptures that specifically speak to you and pray them over yourself.
God’s word says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5) It says never. Not, well if you screw up, I’m outta here! It doesn’t say sometimes. It doesn’t say Wednesdays. It doesn’t say if you’re perfect, I’ll stay. God doesn’t lie. So if He doesn’t lie, then surely you must believe Him.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. Psalm 57:1
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4
You’re right, we let the lies in and get so consumed by them that we isolate ourselves from God and others. We put ourselves right in the place that our flesh says we deserve to be… alone… unworthy of the comfort and love that God has for us in Him and through the precious people that He Himself put into our lives. I think all of us, women especially, are G. U. I. L. T. Y. of doing this and we need to be intentional about letting God in before we sink to deep. Thanks Mel, great message!
Thanks Heidi! I agree, it’s definitely a strong female trait 🙂 Isolation is a trick of Satan. Once he gets us alone, he can really beat us up. Dangerous.
Amen Melinda! Great post!