Don’t Go It Alone: Why You Were Made to Link Up, Not Isolate

When life gets busy, or difficult, do you find it’s easier to isolate rather than spend time in the presence of others?

You and I may not intend to do it, but when our to-do list screams at us to be more productive, when the needs from our family become too insistent, or when the internal cry of our hearts is to get away from everyone else, we can end up on an island, so to speak, feeling isolated and alone.

And that’s when we are most vulnerable to attack.

Continuing to isolate for whatever the reason—or thinking we’re fine because we’ve got social media and online communication—is dangerous. Linking up with others, especially those in the body of Christ, is essential for our survival.

While I was in North Africa visiting my brother, he pointed out to me something I had never seen or noticed in the States. The caterpillars—dark grey and black in color—travel single file one after another, linked so closely that they look like one long snake on the ground to any predator above them like a bird or animal that might otherwise swoop down and eat a single caterpillar or two.

“When they link up with one another, they are protected,” my brother pointed out. “That is their defense.” I watched them closely. They weren’t independent, doing their own thing and only coming together when they needed something to do or something to eat. They traveled this way. They walked this way. It was their lifestyle—their mode of operation.

In Scripture, we are given more than thirty “one-another” commands, instructing us how to live with and relate to other believers. We are not to just link up when it’s time for a potluck or an entertaining event. We are to live linked, walk that way as a lifestyle. It’s our defense.

The enemy of your soul knows the potential of a like-minded believer to strengthen your faith. Satan wants nothing more than for you to detach from the train of believers and move increasingly further from the body of Christ, and to believe God’s church is no longer relevant to your life.

God created us to be dependent on Him and interdependent on one another so He can be glorified in our celebrations as well as our sufferings. But like the defenseless caterpillars, when you and I are alone, we are prey to the enemy. If he can get us alone in our thoughts, he can bring in shame about our past, doubt about our present, and fear about our future. He will also try to lure us toward destructive thoughts about ourselves and others. When people are alone they get depressed. When people are alone they damage their bodies. When people are alone they take their lives. Those aren’t group activities. Satan strikes the believer when he or she is alone.

King Solomon, who was known as the wisest man who ever lived, wrote: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment” (Proverbs 18:1). In other words, by seeking our own desires, we are not considering the wisdom of others.

Solomon also gave us this wisdom in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:

“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor; for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up! Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”

Solomon was saying there is strength in numbers when we are surrounding ourselves with other believers.

God never intended for us to isolate. He created us to live in community with one another. Don’t try to go it alone, my friend. Link up with those who are on this journey with you. You need them for your spiritual and emotional survival, as much as they need you.

Who can you share your heart with this week as a step toward linking up with another believer?

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For more on growing closer to God and others, see Cindi’s newest book: The New Loneliness Devotional: 50 Days to a Closer Connection with God.