Loneliness

So, every few months we’ll continue to circle around and think about and pray about loneliness since loneliness is pretty much a universal experience at some point in our lives, I think, don’t you?

It’s been my privilege to spend some time with folks in a long term care facility in the local area and over and over again the greatest challenge we hear is their experience of loneliness. 

When Evelyn and I speak with women in the prison it’s pretty much the same and you and I know that we could be pretty much anywhere in the community and have the same conversation.

There’s the loneliness of not having close loving people around and also the loneliness of not being understood or cared for even when we are surrounded by others.

We feel isolated and it seems that others have their own agenda and have no idea what we are thinking or feeling or needing to cope with.

The great underlying cause of our loneliness is a breakdown in our experience of God’s presence and loving care.  God doesn’t change but our felt experience of His love for goes up and down doesn’t it?

That’s why we need to draw near to God, and choose to be filled up each day with His love.  We need the reminder that:

For the Lord your God is living among you.  He is a mighty savior.  He will take delight in you with gladness.  With his love, he will calm all your fears.  He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17

As we experience God’s tenderness and love, we grow in our assurance that we are His children, that we are never alone.  He will show us how to relate to others in a way that welcomes the care and understanding we long for from them.

Heavenly Father, Thank you for your unfailing love for us.  You have not left us alone but have given us your Holy Spirit to be in us and around us.  When we feel disconnected, help us to remember that we are  your children, that you are always with us, and you will never leave us nor forsake us. 

Help us to experience healthy relationships built on the foundation of your word.  Amen 

Wherever you are at on the scale of “desperately lonely – feeling loved” I pray You will take a few moments today to remember and welcome God’s love that is foundational to all other experiences of being loved.