My bible study group is working through the book of Philippians in a study titled Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. Today’s section focuses on connections as one of the weapons that we use to fight the enemy who wants to isolate us so that he can infiltrate our thoughts and cause us to feel alone in this big world. Our world is very focused on independence.

Philippians 2:1-2 “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” God’s word promotes togetherness. Community. We have heard the saying “It takes a village.” Who knew that was Biblical? I didn’t. But I know it to be true. God designed us to work together. He refers to us as a body with lots of parts working together to achieve one goal. Community.

This chart is one of many illustrations in our Bible study that instructs on how to interrupt our downwardly spiral thought processes. The chart on the left is the downward spiral, starting with the emotion of shame, and taking us down through thoughts that we can solve our own problems, which leads to building walls, and becoming more and more isolated, and the consequence of that downward spiral is further and continued loneliness, whereas God would have us when we experience the emotion of shame know that he is with us, and that we have a community that we can turn to whether that is your small group at church, a group of deacons, your prayer partners, your family, etc. You get the picture. when we turn to one another, God can show us that he made us to be known and to be loved. Therefore, our behavior needs to be to build more bridges to people and to connect our relationships and to feel known which combats the loneliness, the isolation, and the independence that the world stresses right now.