It has been reported multiple times in recent years that there is a epidemic of loneliness in our society. My personal opinion is that this has been caused, or made worse, by the proliferation of social media. Not only can this lead to unfair and unwarranted personal comparisons (leading to lots of low self-esteem) but high levels of social media use will often lead to a sense of isolation. It is only natural that someone who is buried in social media scrolling will put much of his or her emotional energy there rather than giving their time and interest to personal relationships.

There is a twist to this whole loneliness issue that bears our attention. Often people will use their loneliness as an excuse for their sin. In the absence of personal relationships with living and breathing people, it is easy to lose sight of appropriate behavior. In other word since “no one cares about me”…

• I can watch pornography
• I can drink whatever I want whenever I want to
• I can get into online gambling
• I can start online rumors about people I don’t like
• I can engage in “comment rage” over issues that I really don’t care about

Do you see how easy this can be? Since our culture has made it so easy to play the “victim card” we can blame everyone and everything for our sin…except ourselves. Our excuse goes something like this: “I am not to blame since I’m alone and lonely and no one cares about me. I’m not hurting anyone”.

What I want to share with you is a little something that I’ve learned along the way: Even when we are alone and lonely our choices to sin affect us. These choices impact our character, our integrity and eventually our outlook on life. Ask any addict if their choices to indulge their addictions have changed them. Ask any person if watching porn when they are alone hurts their married sex life. Sin is not an innocent endeavor. According to the Bible, sin is lawlessness. It is going against God’s best for us. I’m not only talking about the Ten Commandments. I’m talking about living in righteousness and truth in every aspect of our lives.

I have heard it said many times that our integrity is proven by how we act when we are alone. It is true that believers are never alone because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. However, it is so easy to quench the Spirit that we too easily deaden our ears to His voice and go our own way. Hence, it becomes easy to sin when we are lonely.

The remedy? Number one it is that we make the hard choices to practice self-discipline. Determine that your choices today will not tend toward self-indulgence and sin. Remember that God knows our words before they are even on our tongue. That means He knows our thoughts. Number two, don’t just be aware of God. Engage with Him. How much time are we spending talking to Him rather than talking ourselves into our favorite sin? You are not the victim of your loneliness. You can be the master of it. Make the choice today.

Chuck Phillips

Life Choices Christian Counseling,LLC

Licensed Christian Pastoral Counselor, N.C.C.A.

Board Certified Professional Life Coach, I.B.C.C.

LifeChoicesCLC.Com LifeChoicesCLC@gmail.com

573-280-5093