Do you ever feel as though you are all alone in this world?
You’re surrounded by people every day at work, at home, at church…even at the grocery store or gas station. You’re with your mom, your best friend, your boyfriend or husband. And yet, you feel alone.
Throughout our lives, women tend to have similar moments where we have felt especially alone.
The few moments after your High School graduation, when you feel excited about the future, yet there’s a moment of knowing you’re leaving home to “go it alone” in the world.
Some moments at church leave us feeling solo when we see groups of other women gathered in chatty-hug-filled circles.
There are moments in a marriage where you feel so misunderstood or undervalued that you feel completely and utterly alone.
Those nights where you can’t figure out why the baby is still crying and you’re exhausted or the nights after your last child has turned 18 and moved out of the house…those are also moments where you may experience that sense of complete aloneness.
In my own life, I’ve felt alone during military deployments, in the failure of IVF, in the aftermath of divorce, when hearing of someone’s cancer diagnosis, or in the misstep of dieting. Often when I’ve felt most alone, I’ve also felt hopeless. And right there in that hopelessness is the lie that the enemy tells us…that we are the only ones who have ever felt that “alone” time.
In 1 Kings 19:1-18, we read that there was a time that Elijah felt utterly alone and hopeless. At that moment, the Lord gives Elijah questions that will allow Elijah to understand that he isn’t alone. Rather than concede that God is with him, Elijah repeats the lie two times that he is alone.
In the middle of the chaos and fierce winds, God whispers to Elijah, “You are not alone!”
I think it is time that women remind each other of God’s constant whispering, “You are not alone!” God is literally with us each step of our journey. Yet it’s easy in the moments of despair, the moments by ourselves, or the moments steeped in sin, to forget that God has a plan for us. And the plan was never for us to be alone. Ever.
If you are feeling alone, remember the whisperings of God’s promise that you aren’t alone. Remember that you are always welcome on the porch if you need to be reminded of that soft-spoken promise.
~Emily
Iron Porch 