Today, I am going into great detail because I
feel that the subject matter warrants it. This particular lie of the devil can lead us to destruction, so please forgive me if this is long, but I don't want to leave anything out. If you don't have time to read the whole thing right now at least copy down Satan's Lie and the Counter Action on an index card or sheet of paper to take with you today for reference, but please come back to read this. I pray that you will never have to use this information, but if you do you will be glad you took the time.
Now, I am not a medical doctor or psychiatrist or
psychologist and what I am about to say should not be taken as professional medical or mental
health advice. I am just a Christian who has been there, done that and believes
that if God has allowed his children to go through something then we should share our
experience of getting through it with others. So, without further delay…
Satan’s Lie: “You are alone in your pain – alone in your
shame – alone in your failures – alone in your sorrow – alone in your worries
and troubles – alone in your heartache – alone against your enemies – alone in your stand for God – alone in your hopes and dreams – alone in your ministry. You are
all alone.”
Counter Action: BELIEVE God when He says, “Lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20)
AND, “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the
LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) REPEAT Gods Word to satan. REMEMBER what the Bible says about satan's character, “He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44b) TELL satan, “You are a liar and
the father of all lies and I am onto your tactics! My God has told me that I AM
NEVER ALONE! He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother! He has NEVER
once left my side!
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Dear Friends, I am no stranger to loneliness. About 10 years ago I was told by my doctor that I had Fibromyalgia and its ugly cousin Myofascial Pain Syndrome. I was able to continue working for many years, but I had to push myself harder than a “normal” person.
Five years ago I went on a mission trip to Mexico with my church. While I was there I became very ill and was bedridden the last couple of days of our trip. I started taking an antibiotic while I was there, but it didn’t help. When I got back home I made an appointment to see my family doctor and he started me on another round of antibiotics...again I was not helped. Actually, after that illness I never felt well again. Within 8 months I was unable to continue working and my world as I knew it came to an end.
I had been a vibrant, energetic person all my life. I was always involved in some type of activity…everything from secretary of the PTA, to chaperoning at school events, to computer classes, to AWANA Commander, to professional organizations. On my job I was in charge of compliance for 130 manufacturing plants located in 8 different countries. The workload was heavy, but I kept it under control...that is until the pain and fatigue started and then gradually worsened. Then there were periods of blacking out, even while at work. I started having memory problems that seemed like borderline dementia (short-term and long-term memory loss), stomach issues, weight gain, eye pain, stabbing pains in my hands, feet, and head, an extremely high heart rate, hair falling out, flushing, headaches, ears ringing so loudly I had to start sleeping with a sound machine, anxiety, depression and on and on came the symptoms…too many to count…and then came the side effects of all the medications.
I not only lost the person I was, but all the friends that I did have seemed to just fade out of sight. And with this invisible illness, I feel that many times I have been judged and that no one seemed to remember who I had been before. And then there were the encounters with doctors who either knew very little about fibromyalgia, didn't believe it really existed, who thought I was a hypochondriac or a person looking to get pain medication to feed an addiction.
As the weight of these illnesses bore on me I continued to feel loss. I felt that I had lost my purpose. Good grief, I had been working full-time ever since the age of sixteen! I don't even remember what it was like to not have a job or career.
I began to feel unloved, uncared for, rejected, and forgotten. As the months rolled on depression started taking its toll. Many people don’t know this, but chronic pain patients tend to isolate themselves (almost like a wounded animal does). For me, I didn’t want anyone to see what I was like on my worst days (a form of pride). I did not want anyone’s pity...or judgment. But, also when a person is in pain we have a hard time dealing with the extra stimulation of hearing people talk and laugh or even a TV or restaurant getting a little too loud and sometimes there’s the issue of trying to hold a normal conversation without having your brain shut-down and forget what you’re saying in the middle of a sentence...and it happens often. You start forgetting how to get to familiar places. You forget people’s names and even what they told you yesterday...or even a minute ago. They can’t always count on you, so instead of having to constantly cancel you just stop making plans altogether. So, as you can see, I have walked the deep, dark valley of loneliness and I have felt the desperation, depression and despair that can go along with it. I even know what it is like to no longer want to live this life of pain.
We were created to have relationships…with God and our fellow man. We were not created to live our lives in isolation. We were created for community. God gave us families and He says we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together with other believers. He knows we need fellowship. We need to feel needed, wanted, accepted, and loved. We need to feel encouraged.
However, we make a grave error when we try to find our sole happiness in people or things. We will surely be in for an eventual heartbreak because NO ONE can be there for us 24/7. God and God alone can do that.
After being in this ministry, I have seen more Christians with troubles and trials and feeling lonely right now than I have at any point in my life. And oh, how many times have I seen the statuses on Facebook that say, “I’ve been there for my friends, but where are they when I need them?”
Now, it is precious and wonderful to have friends and a loving spouse, but we cannot put our expectations in a person to help us and to alleviate our loneliness because sooner or later that person will be dealing with their own issues and will most likely handle them just as badly as we do. At some point they will let us down because they cannot be what we need them to be at all times. They are human just like we are. They make mistakes just like we do. And they cannot read our mind. God forbid, one day they may even walk out of our life for some reason or be claimed by the grave. If we have put our whole life into that person then we have surely lost all.
Some people place all their happiness into a career or hobbies. They've kept themselves so busy with these "things" that they have not had time to feel lonely. But, please consider this…a career can be taken away at a moment’s notice. An employer can send you out the door tomorrow with no warning or an illness or accident can snatch your dreams away in a heartbeat. I have been through both. I had placed some of my worth and part of my purpose into a job, so when it was gone it felt like a part of me had been ripped away.
So, that day has arrived…our friends or spouse either can’t or won’t be there for us or something has happened leaving us isolated and alone with, “Me, Myself, and I”. Perhaps our health deteriorated and now we can't do what we did before or perhaps we lost that job that was our all in all. Maybe, God gave us a particular job at church or a ministry of some type and while it was fresh and new we were so excited and had all these plans, but we soon found out that no one else seemed to care or was enthusiastic about the work we were doing. Maybe, not one single person, out of the people that we thought would be our main supporters, supports us at all or maybe we have taken a stand for God and we look around and no one seems to be standing with us.
It could be the worst kind of loneliness of all. It is the lonesomeness that we feel even when we are in a crowd. This kind of loneliness is deeply rooted into our subconscious. Somewhere along the way we were violated in the worst possible way. It could be due to physical or verbal abuse by a parent or spouse...sexual abuse as a child or rape as an adult. It could be the torment we faced each and every day in school, being bullied or made fun of unmercifully or something happened to us *gasp* at church, the one place we are supposed to feel safe. Each one leaving us feeling alone because we either cannot or do not want to tell someone else. Then this leads to feelings of being helpless, hopeless, dirty, and ashamed and feeling like there is no one who understands our deep anguish.
Guess who then comes along and whispers in our ear. Yes, it is the one who despises us because our soul got away and we now belong to the God he hates. We are no longer condemned to the same fate as he, so he is bound and determined that we will still suffer.
What happens when we buy into his lies? When we hear them over and over again? When we allow them to ferment in our hearts and minds? I'll tell you exactly what happens...we become overwhelmed with sadness, loneliness, emptiness, hopelessness, feelings of rejection and abandonment, feeling that no one knows what we are going through, feeling that we are inferior, feeling that we matter to no one. We feel there is no place to go, no place we can hide to get away from that voice in our head that says, "You are all alone."
How are we to combat loneliness when it touches our lives?
Now, dear child, is the time to "BELIEVE GOD"! The same God that you believed could save you from a devil's hell is still here to deliver you from whatever problem you face. Without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) We must believe! With faith we can move mountains because through our belief we have the power of the eternal Godhead behind us.
God has written 66 beautiful love letters for mankind. But, when we read those words and still have trouble feeling His love we must realize that our feelings can be, at times, very fickle. So, we must always operate on faith and not our feelings.
Lack of faith stops the flow of power in our lives and we need that power to overcome the pain of loneliness. Ask God to increase your faith and He will give you what you need. (And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. ~Matthew 21:22)
We must read and meditate on God’s word.
God’s Spirit will speak life through His Word to minister to us and give us just what we need at that moment. And we must read the Word often. We need to get it engrained into our brains by meditating on it day and night to help us counteract the lies of satan. (But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. ~Psalm 1:2-3)
And please remember...reading the Word can bring us great comfort, but it will not bring us victory until it is believed and applied!
Do NOT stop praying.
Prayer is our 911 emergency call center…our SOS...it is our lifeline to God. But, when we need it the most it seems that is when we usually quit praying. When we are suffering we become withdrawn. We are so tired and weary of hearing the lies and feeling this way. We know that prayer takes work and commitment, but we feel too weak to commit or maybe we have been praying, but there was not an immediate answer so we just gave up.
If we are to conquer loneliness we must cry out for God’s strength and for his presence even if all we can say is, “God help me!” He knows our hearts, He knows our needs, and because He knows He can interpret many things from that three word prayer. One of the saddest things is when we stop praying just short of getting an answer and we didn't even realize that God was just about to deliver us.
But, why would He allow us to go on this way? Because, precious friend, God wants our total trust. He wants our whole heart. He wants our whole being. He wants us to get close to Him. He wants us to experience Him, to experience His power, His love, His mercy, His grace, His goodness, His provision, His protection, His comfort. He wants us to become more like His Son. The Son that suffered and died on Calvary's hill. The One who said, "Lord, not my will, but thy will be done."
Please don't cut off your communication with the only One who can do anything about your loneliness. The only One who can be there for you day after day, month after month, and year after year. Satan laughs at us when we stop praying because he knows that we have a great Source of power and he knows the strength of that Power, so when we fail to recognize it, he is thrilled. The devil knows that if we get down on our knees that he will be a defeated foe. So, child of God what are you waiting for? Why are you hesitating for one moment? Run to the God of your salvation! Hide in the cleft of the Rock and be shielded and protected from your enemy. He is faithful who has promised!
Satan, let it be known, starting today..."I am who God says I am!" and God says, "I AM NEVER ALONE!!"
The Princess Warrior
Visit our sister site @ http://theprincesswarriorministries.blogspot.com/
Thank you Princess! I needed this truth tonight!
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