We live in a busy culture, people are socially connected; through Facebook, twitter, text messaging, and emails, yet in the midst of this people are feeling more lonely then ever before. This desire for connection and relationships perhaps even presses people to want to be engaged in the social media. I know people who hold onto the cell phone hoping that someone will give them a call, hoping that there will be a text message, or an email, or a Facebook posting. Of course there is always the conversations that are running back and forth on Facebook. “Wow nice pic.” “LOL”. “OMG was that really U?” “Billy likes Corn Flakes.” But is this really fulfilling the need within people’s lives? Are they really socially satisfied or is there still an inner yearning that people crave for, something that is true and lasting and significant? There are technical ways to communicate yet many still say, “I’m so lonely, I have no friends,”
In Ps 68:6 it says that, “God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.” It is God’s desire to minister to the social needs that individuals have by bringing them into healthy relationships, into “families”. These “families” may not be our natural born families but may refer to “spiritual families”.
In New Testament times it was usual that such relationships or connections would take place within small groups in the local churches. We realize that no person is perfect and that no small group is perfect, yet God still places us into the relational context of the church. In this context, God uses other people to minister to our social and emotional needs.
Heavenly Father, thanks you for your concern for us and your love for us. Help us to connect with the right people within Your church that our social needs will be ministered to. Help us to lovingly draw others into our sphere of friendship so that they too will be ministered to.
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