Never Alone... A Five Minute Friday Post

It was so nice to be back... even if I was in and out for the party! My how I have missed this Community and our talk of books and food and Jesus... (of kids, and vacations, and --well, What About Bob!) This tribe, these people?  These are my people and I am so very thankful for them!

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: ALONE

{GO}

My first thought is how being Lonely and being Alone are two different things... 

...of how as an introvert, being alone can feed me and fill me up - but as a human, I fight off feelings of loneliness from time to time. (Even though I thrive with chunks of time all by myself!)

I think of how He is with us always, and when I am feeling lonely, that truth alone sinks deep and stirs hope to arise once again, no matter what...

My heart has felt heavy and tired this week... not so much for myself, but for others.  I have felt a heavy burden that is not mine to carry and I have found myself praying often under my breath... sometimes I know who I am praying for, and sometimes I do not... and yet, this call to pray has not lifted all week long.


Instead of writing right away, I log on to Facebook and scroll around.  I know, I know... but this has become my habit, for better or worse. I scroll a bit, I look at my Notifications, and I pray for the Friends I see in my newsfeed.

I see a post in a new group that I joined, and the leader felt the Lord wanted the members to pray for each other this morning. It's a rather large group, so she laid out some instructions on how to know who to pray for. I clicked over following her instructions and wouldn't you know it - but the faces of friends filled my screen. 

Real life friends.  

Friends I have met in person. Laughed with, prayed with, broken bread and taken communion with.

Friends who I love... and a few whom I have actually been praying for off and on all week long already! (Because, of course! God is just so smart!)

I hadn't yet reached out to them. I hadn't told them that God had placed them on my heart and that He and I had been chatting about them, loving them, and praying for them. But this group leader led me to pray once again - and then, to let them know.

Now I don't know if they were feeling alone or discouraged... if they were overwhelmed or stressed out... but I do know that immediately after I sent off a little prayer, I heard back from most of them and they all said similar things... 

"You can't know..." 

"On today, of all days..." 

"I needed that prayer and that word..."

You see, we are never alone.

We are one Body, one Bride... 

We are family... brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and oh my goodness, how we serve a God who loves us so and who speaks to us and through us to encourage and uplift and to remind us over and over and over again:

You are never alone! 
Not ever. 

He is so for us...so with us
  (... something about Yes, 'always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.')

So don't ever fall for the lie that you are alone... He is with you... and He is ever interceding on your behalf... and chances are really really good that He is doing that with the help of others who are also so for you... and who stand with you. 

It's just that sometimes, you are unaware!

{STOP}

I often think of how many times God has us covered and one day, on the other side of eternity, we will get to see how it all unfolded and worked together for our good... and how it was not just some mysterious invisible hand of God. It was that, yes - but in that hand, was the hearts of many who held us up and prayed on our behalf!

I am so thankful for the Body... for how the Lord stirs us to pray and calls us to our knees... how He awakens us from slumber - both literal and maybe not so much... and meets us in the midst of prayer. 

I love the Scripture that says wherever two or three are gathered, there He is in the midst... 

If you are feeling alone, or lonely... know that He is with you, and I am praying, and in my prayers, my heart cries out, "Dwell in the midst of us..."

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click here to read what others have to say about "ALONE"

The FMF lowdown: I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then  we write our hearts out and hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage and uplift... where we share prayer requests and praise reports... where we talk food and friends and we find support and kindred hearts and we are reminded that life is good and God is good and we are not alone... and then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts and our fingers do the talking tapping and we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to have you join us!