Don't Go It Alone

[Elijah] went a day's journey into the desert....and prayed that he might die, "I have had enough, Lord," he said. ~ 1 Kings 19:4

I remember a couple of years ago, we were going through the pits. There's a saying, "If life is a bowl full of cherries, why am I always in the pits?" That's how I felt. With being fairly young, I'd often heard, "You're too young to have this much stress." Or, "You're too young to have these problems." Whether we were too young or not, we were having them. The devil doesn't discriminate age, position, or sex--he attacks them all. And we were under attack. I've been thinking a lot, recently, about 1 Kings 19 and Elijah's interaction with the Lord. I remember often times thinking or saying, "I'm done. I've had enough. I don't want to play this game anymore." In fact, often times I would tell God (and others), all my husband and I have left of our wedding vows are: for better, for richer, and for healthy. I figured by then, we had already lived through: for worse, for poorer, and in sickness.

Looking back on it, do you know what got me through? It was God and the prayers of others. It wasn't my strength, because, while I was determined, I was still weak. I received great strength and a fresh measure of endurance when my girlfriends would tell me that they were praying me through, lifting me up daily. They weren't telling me to boast or brag, it was to encourage me. They were surrounding me, and us, with a hedge of protection with their prayers. I have one dear, sweet friend who has a card for every person she prays for and I know that when I'm going through something else, or need her to join me in praying over a certain topic, I can call her up and she'll write it on my card and keep praying. In fact, she so inspired me, I started my own set of cards.

That's what we all need. We need people to join with us, to rally around us, and to see it through with us. God didn't call any of us to go it alone, but to join with others and to go through life as part of a community. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body, (1 Corinthians 12:12). That's us, the church, Christ's bride. We are a unit--the church--but we are many individual people with unique purposes, joined together for the common purpose of Christ and building each other up in Him. If this is who we are and what we are called for, how is it that some are very much like Elijah, who walked out into the desert that he might die? It's because he was all alone.

1 Kings 19:3 says he isolated himself by leaving his servant in town and went off by himself. One, by himself, is very vulnerable. One is not able to warm himself, pull himself out of a deep ditch, carry himself if he is injured, or defend himself very well if under attack, (see Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). For accountability, love, comfort, and encouragement, God made both man and woman, Jesus sent his disciples out in twos, and we are called to be many parts of one body, (see Genesis 2:21-23; Matthew 10; 1 Corinthians 12).

The devil loves to isolate us, but God has called us to be joined together. If you've found that you are walking through life and you are all alone, you don't have to be, help is close by: phone a friend, join a small group, seek out the love of the Lord and His kids. We'd love to love you, we're just waiting for the opportunity. Don't wander through the desert alone, waiting to die. Find someone to go through this valley with you, to lift you up, to encourage you.

Lord, I pray that if any are walking through the desert alone today, that they would be compelled to call even just one person to walk with them, to help them carry this burden that has caused them to be isolated. Lord, a multitude of people does not make one feel loved, but rather close personal relationships. So Lord, I pray that you would send one person to be in relationship with those who are trying to go it alone, and that those who are alone would seek it out. I pray that they would be united in friendship and united in their love for you. Lord, thank you, that you have given us friends who love us so much! In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.