My Answer

on Aug 28, 2026

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: Facebook has been my friend for the past few years. My followers have grown and I’ve become a sort of expert in the realm of social media. I have bragging rights to gain so many friends, but I don’t know any of them personally. My grandmother used to tell me to make God my closest confidant and friend, but I need someone who will speak to me personally, and reading the Bible is too confusing. – F.D.

A: Suppressing God’s truth in your mind, heart, and soul is a lonely and dangerous place to be. Don’t stay in that place. Reach out to God, open your heart, respond to His call, turn your eyes to Jesus, the One who saves. Have faith in Him. He will strengthen you and lead you by His loving hand. You can have a personal relationship with the God of Heaven and the Savior of lost souls.

No matter where in the world, people’s hearts reflect five areas of human need: emptiness, loneliness, guilt, fear of death, and deep-seated insecurity. Loneliness is a deep personal kind of suffering. Multitudes of lonely people carry heavy and difficult burdens of grief, anxiety, pain, and disappointment – shouldering it alone.

How coincidental that Facebook, a 21 st-century phenomenon, was conceived and given birth at Harvard, for loneliness is a predominant attitude in our culture. Loneliness is experienced by the rich and famous and the poor and unknown. There are many who believe that social media will cure loneliness. Time will reveal that it won’t.

Nevertheless, this social media networking website has tapped into the deepest of human need – to belong. One blogger stated that people’s obsession with this social media platform lies in the innate human drive for social acceptance, which is as old as human history.

Here is an amazing truth: Nothing dissolves loneliness like a session with God’s Word.

(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)