Satan uses our loneliness to keep us from God. After my post last week, about my struggles with loneliness, the outpouring I’ve received from readers as well as those in real life has been incredible. One of the commenters summed it up best, “Our pastor was just at our house last night. He said one of the biggest issues with the young moms in the church right now is loneliness… it’s not just you.”

After reading all the messages that people have been sending me, I realized a few things: I’m not alone in this {which I already knew}; it’s more prevalent than I realized; and this is borderline epidemic.

People who I believed to be most definitely NOT in this category, are.

But, if we’re all desperate for a true, deep, intentional friendship then why don’t we have them? Why are we all struggling with this if we’re not the only one who wants it? Why are we A-L-O-N-E?

There is a simple answer, but of course it isn’t that simple….Satan. If he can keep deep, intentional friendships from happening, it is that much easier for him to attack us in our lives, to win us away from Christ, to keep us alone and at his cruel mercy.

God created us for relationship, with Him, with Jesus, with others. If Satan can keep us all apart then we have allowed him to begin to pull not only ourselves apart, but every one of our relationships, including the church. If we stand alone we cannot worship the Lord the way we are called to.

This is so much easier said than done, isn’t it?

Fear. That’s what makes this so hard.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of bitchiness {and yes, I am intentionally using that word}. We have all felt the nasty looks, comments, and judgment from other women. Whether it was in elementary school, high school, college or the supermarket last week. It may even have come from other Christian women. Regardless of the when, where or how, we have ALL felt it.

In feeling it, over and over and over again, we have withdrawn into ourselves. We feel safer alone than to put ourselves out there one more time, knowing that we {more than likely} would once again be slapped in the face and our souls clawed at. It hurts. No one wants to hurt like that. The pain of loneliness is bearable, comfortable, expected, so much less humiliating than the pain of cattiness.

While I still don’t have the solution to this problem, I do have some ideas as to what we can do.

Be kind, none of us know all the details of anyone else’s story;
Be appreciative, if someone has done some thing that touched you {a card, a hug, a minute of time} let them know you appreciated it;
Reach out to others, whether they look like they have it all together in the friend-department or not;
Show grace, none are perfect, particularly when put on the spot, we don’t always say or do things the best way
{I know I’ve often said/done something only to be haunted later by how someone could have misunderstood me};
Pray, that no matter what we say or do or how someone takes it that God will use it for good.

Others in This Series
I. Giving Loneliness a Name
II. The Devil’s Snare
III. Countering the Devil’s Plot