Leaving the Lies Behind - Part 1

Leaving the Lies Behind - Part 1

by Susan Abbett

Do you remember the children’s song, “Oh, Be Careful Little Eyes What You See?”  

That song we teach our children still convicts me as an adult.  Am I careful where my not-so-little feet now go? What my not-so-little tongue says?  

The most convicting verse of all for me?  

“Oh, be careful little mind what you think…”

Do missionary wives struggle with their thought life?   I wish I could put on my Super Missionary Wife/Mom cape and deny it until my last breath, but let’s just be honest here.  Being a godly wife and mom anywhere in the world is hard.  But take that same godly wife and mother and place her in a strange culture, cut off physically from her familiar comforts and anchors, and put her on the frontlines of doing the Lord’s work in well-ensconced enemy territory… 

Yes, missionary wives can become easy targets for Satan’s lies.  How easy it is for us to allow the difficulties of service to overshadow the amazing truths of God’s Word.  

Many years ago, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wrote an incredible book entitled Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets them free.  If you have never read this insightful book, it is well worth the read. You can get a copy here.

This book exposes the many lies that women face on a daily basis and gives a Biblical perspective on each of them.  I have been recently rereading this book and applying it to my life of almost twenty years on the mission field.  These “missionary thought battles” are not unique to missionary wives and moms, but the support resources that are available to ladies in the US may be nonexistent to their sisters in Christ on the field.  

Yes, we struggle with our thoughts, often with silent tears that slip down our cheeks as we lay in our beds, the only times that many of us have to think about our topsy-turvy lives at all.  This is when Satan whispers his poison to us, drumming it into our minds until it all but drowns out the truth of God’s Word.

Let’s start with a biggie:

Lie Number 1:  “I am all alone here.”

This is the lie with which I struggle the most.  It is hardest because in many cases, it may be true.  I might be the only Christian in my town.  There might not be another Christian church for hours. The only Americans that might “get me” are locked behind a screen.  As thankful as I am for technology, I cannot hug my telephone and have my burdens lifted the way that human contact can.  

Physically, I might be alone.  Satan knows if he can drum this thought into my head, it will open the floodgates for all its ugly sister thoughts:  “Just go back home.  You’re not enough.  There is too much to do by yourself.  You will never make it.  At least in the U.S. there are other Christians, other churches, other homeschoolers…”

Psalm 142 could be our heart cry, but it was penned many years ago by David, all alone in a cave.  Isolated. Cut off from his supports and all that was familiar.  In enemy territory, running for his life.  

“I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.

² I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.

³ When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. 

In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.

⁴ I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: 

refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.”

Can you feel David’s loneliness and desperation as the Spirit records these words through him? “I am in trouble, but worse than that, I am in trouble and all alone!  Hello? Does anyone care?”

Through these verses I see how God redirects our thoughts toward Him, in our darkest hours. And so, at my loneliest, when my heart is breaking from the isolation and the stress of being “the only one,” I must redirect my thoughts to Him.  

I love how David oriented his thoughts to the Lord.  His heart was crying out, but to the Lord.  Not to people right there.  Not on Facebook (haha) or to other “gods” who could not help him.  

^“5 I cried unto thee, O Lord: 

I said, Thou art my refuge and my portionin the land of the living.”

During life’s most intense moments of persecution and testing, the Lord is right there.  Even when I am “brought low,” God does not abandon me.  He sends deliverance and comfort, even when there may be no one else around me to help.

^“6 Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: 

deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.”

I have learned after many years of ministering alone here that the Lord always sends someone at just the right time.  If I always had the human fellowship that I craved, my soul would never cry out to the Lord.  I would depend on others for strength, instead of leaning hard on Him.

I forget too quickly that loneliness is for a season.  It does not last forever.  God raises up those Jonathons whose souls are bound to ours.  He raises up those Aarons and Hurs to reinforce my failing arms in His time.

^“7 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: 

the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.”

My thoughts must return to Jesus.  How did He handle the overwhelming loneliness just hours before His own death, while His closest friends slept during His most desperate hours?

He prayed. He prayed to the only one who could hear and help.  He prayed for deliverance.  While He was praying for deliverance from His present circumstances, Jesus prayed for courage to accept His lonely mission.  Then, He got up from the garden and got back to fulfilling His Father’s will. 

When loneliness overwhelms me, may I be willing to take it to the Lord.  He understands my intense longings for fellowship. He desires my company and time spent with Him.  He longs for my heart to long after His, to be my Refuge when everything else around me crumbles.  

Will I allow the Lord to be my friend, my comfort, my confidant, my refuge?

Susan Abbett is a missionary wife and mom serving the Lord for almost twenty years in the needy country of France. Nothing wakes her up better than coffee, motivates her like learning from God's Word, challenges her like teaching anything to anyone who will listen, and refreshes her like being outside, usually walking or working in her garden. If she could sum up her life in one verse it would be John 3:30: "He must increase but I must decrease."