“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
– Romans 8:38,39
Are you convinced that God loves you and that there is nothing you have done or will ever do to separate you from that love? If your answer to this question is yes, then you are positioned to live a blessed and abundant life. When you walk in the truth that no force in the universe is powerful enough to get in the way of Jesus’ love for you, you experience peace, joy, and strength of heart. However, you also have an enemy… Satan hates you because you are in Christ. Since he is a defeated foe and there is nothing he can do to change his ultimate destiny, he knows that the only way he can try to “get back” at God is by getting to you. The more convinced you are of the depths of your Savior’s love, the harder he will try to convince you otherwise. But how does he do this? Many people think the first thing the devil comes at them with is temptation; that he tries to get them to do something evil. However, I believe that Satan’s first and primary method of attack is always to isolate. When he gets you to a place where you feel alone and unsupported, all kinds of lies can take root in your heart. Without the edification and encouragement of truthful voices, the devil whispers to you that you are a victim, that you are being taken advantage of, and that nobody loves you. Friend, as a disciple of Jesus, one of your primary goals is to prevent isolation in your life. Like a tree, I encourage you to reach up to God and reach out to your neighbor. When you cultivate deep and authentic horizontal relationships, it protects you against the devil’s attacks on the vertical. As you surround yourself with like-minded, Spirit-filled, joy-saturated people, Satan loses his power over your thoughts, and when you resist him, he will flee. This is why I believe that the best way to be convinced of the fullness of Jesus’ love is to know Him deeply through others. You are made to connect, so start cultivating the soil of friendship and watch your life change! |
Prayer
Jesus, I recognize that the devil will always seek to isolate me. I come against his attacks in my life and I pray for deep, authentic, and healing connections with others.
Reflection
How has Satan tried to isolate you? Has it impacted your faith in God’s love for you? Do you have authentic relationships with others who can help you through? If not, take a moment right now to pray that God will bring safe people into your life.
4 Responses
Sorry Bobby, but you got this one wrong. If you are an empath you isolate yourself from narcissists after two decades of trying to form meaningful relationships.
There are many interpretations on topics/verses like these with different nuances, but I am convinced that God has a special place for me among a group of narcissists. If I follow your preaching on this topic, I will always have to initiate contact, friendships and subject myself to their selfish views. They will never reach out to me as it is not part of their DNA, which is only to dominate everything and everyone around them. You have to bow to them otherwise there is no contact.
Narcissists have a very limited view of ‘love thy neighbor.’ To them it is only a feel good feeling’ for themselves whereas it truly means to constantly restore human dignity which is beyond them.
Dear Mike,
I read your comment and I felt compelled to reply. Like you I have struggled decades with this issue, as it seemed I was surrounded with family and acquintances with these tendencies. There even came a moment that I discovered that a lot of them had borderliner disease, which is even worse than narcissism. I had to stop seeing my own sister because of this, which was a shocking experience.
It was especially strange, because God had helped me to overcome my addictions to substance and after that He helped me to get rid of a huge financial debt problem, which took me more than 10 years to solve. So even without these problems, I experience myself becoming more and more isolated because I did not want to be in contact with “problematic people” any longer. I just could not bear that any longer because now I wanted to live a peaceful life… .
But this is exactly what Bobby, or the scriptures, however you want to see it, try to explain. Our Father is mightier than any situation we might be experiencing at this time. I, like you, tried for decades to get normal friends or at least contacts, but however I tried, it seemed like all I got in contact with was folks with mental problems, and i did not really have the skills to help them out, let alone have a meaningful relationship with them.
So I figured, it might be because I have a certain pattern in the sort of people I attract or was used to contact after all these years of doing so in my own special way. It might also be that we are being isolated , by giving up after so many times of trying and failing.
And that is what Bobby is trying to explain. That is this dark force that is doing a (seemingly) effective job of trying to isolate us. But I won’t give up and I still ask Jesus to help me and I know he will help me, just as he has before. I am redesigning my live and I am going to find other people. So hang in there Mike, do not get dissapointed any longer. Ask God, take action and be patient my friend.
I will pray for you as I have prayed for myself.
Greetings from Holland,
Henk
Im dealing with this myself. Its life all of a sudden my friends and family wanya to gang up on me and i have tried for years to forgive them and continue to gang around them. I came to the conclusion that I didnt want to be hurt any more so I stop hanging around them and some we just happened to disconnect naturally. Then I started feeling like I was isolated but Its not my fault if they want to hurt me. I know one of my relatives was spreading lies about me to the family and they believe them over me and that became an issues. I have my life to Christ some years ago after living a bad life and I believe this could be spiritual warfare. Its so intense and seem do real like everybody is out to get me and it hurts. Im so tired of being almond and im tired of people hurting me for no reason.
Hi People, I would like to ask something to this if I may. I understand both of your viewpoints and agree with both of them. I am seeing that sometimes rejection is projection. Rejection is sometimes protection. When someone would not reach out to us like we want perhaps there is something in them that sees they are no good for us. And they stay away in that for their own selfish reasons but maybe it is protecting us from being in relationship with toxic people. I’m not saying it’s easy to believe that because I have struggled with people that should be in my life that won’t reach out to me, they will not check on me if I ask them to. And then after so many times of asking them I just give up because you cannot make somebody want to do the right thing in your life and you can make somebody be in your life. So I have prayed just now after reading your messages I’ve asked God to put good people in my life. I’ve just asked him to give me the gift of discernment so that I can see and know the people that he has placed in my life. I’ve asked him to let me know when they come so that I know that I can be a blessing to them also. I want people in my life that can bless me with their presence and I can bless them with my presence and pay forward the blessings that God has given us.