1 John 5:21 (NIV) Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

When we read warnings from the scriptures about idols, we think of ugly statues and monuments that people make with their hands. These idols and false gods were a huge problem for the Israelites in the Old Testament and they continue to be prominent among a vast number of people in the world today. But did you know that there are idols that we worship that are not seen? These are especially dangerous because you can’t see them and you usually don’t know that you are worshipping them. An idol is anything that masks itself as God that isn’t God or that tries to usurp His glory by enticing people to serve and worship them. One such idol is the god of loneliness.

When people, even Christians, get lonely, they many times turn to this idol. The problem with this idol, besides the fact that it is a false god, is that he comes off looking like he is very kind and very caring. He seems as if he cares about your loneliness and wants to do things to make it better. So he gives you permission to do things that you wouldn’t normally do that are not good and that can be very harmful to you. This god will encourage you to do something for yourself that the Word of God warns against. This god will even tell you that God (the one true God) will understand because of your loneliness. This idol might even say that it was the Lord that presented it to you or that put the thought in your mind. You go along with it because this god of loneliness will tell you that you deserve to be happy so the rules about right and wrong need to be put aside for a while; just a little while, mind you. But before you know it, you are in a very bad situation and it’s then that you realize that you swallowed this god’s bait with the hook, the line and the sinker. That’s a fishing term describing a fish that is so desperate for the bait that the fisherman offers that it doesn’t just bite and swallow the hook, but it swallows everything else along with it. Then come the consequences. That’s when this god unmasks himself and begins to mock, accuse and ridicule you.

Loneliness is real and it puts you in a very vulnerable position. The truth is, however, that as a Christian, you are never alone. God has promised to never leave you or forsake you and among the last words of Jesus before He ascended to heaven were His declaration that He would be with us always. The cure for loneliness is your relationship with Jesus. Your mind will tell you that you need something else or someone else. But what you will find is that this thing or the person that was presented to you by the god of loneliness will not be able to satisfy you or cure your need of what your soul really is hungering for, and that is an intimate relationship with the God who made you and knows you like no one else does. When you are lonely, run to Jesus. He will come closer to you than anything or anyone else can. He will not only satisfy your soul, but that soul-satisfaction will keep you from being enticed and caught in the snare of the god of loneliness. Stay in fellowship with Jesus and you will stay safe from this idol and every other idol that would scheme to do you harm.

Pastor Joey Vazquez