“I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
Psalm 102:7, ESV
“At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!”
2 Timothy 4:1
The Bible is very sensitive and its aware of the difficulties of loneliness.
We discover that the sense of being all alone is quite common. We’ll encounter this awful thing before our day is done. To be alone, isolated, and separated brings us a ‘solitary confinement‘ of our hearts. That difficult confinement will never be easy.
There’s a place where the Lord orders us to be quarantined.
Sometimes, in order to deal with certain sins, our Father will purposefully isolate us from others. Believe it or not, your sinful attitudes can spread to others. Sin is often compared to spiritual leprosy. I have seen this and have experienced it for myself.
But loneliness doesn’t have to be a sin issue. (Although it often is.) Being lonely can be a season in your life; like winter is waiting for spring. This is a hard time to be sure. The field seems dead, fallow, and waits for planting seed. Ministry is not really easy during this season. It seems like a time of preparation.
Both David and Paul were often lonely.
King David looked around and found nobody that he could be with. He felt like a solitary bird when all had flown away, and the apostle Paul knew true abandonment. Everyone had left him by himself in this difficult spot. The reality is, we need others. And often, too often, this is when this is withheld from us, and we’re somewhat vulnerable.
Jesus knew what it was like to be terribly lonely.
“You will leave me alone, but I am never really alone because the Father is with me” (read John 16). I often think He spent all that time in prayer, to somehow connect with His Father was because of loneliness. It seems Jesus had a deep need to be understood.
Your loneliness can be redeemed and used by God.
It very often can spur us into a deeper awareness of the Spirit’s work. The only way I can describe it as a point of abandonment or isolation, but it also brings us to a sense of His deep love for us.
Loneliness is one of our Lord’s favorite tools in restoring our hard hearts. It has a wonderful capacity to do things in us, that none of His other ways would work. It can be the perfect mechanism for Him to deeply touch us. And He will not hesitate to use it.
Often there can be a definite loneliness as we move toward Him.
This is acquired loneliness that comes when we start separating ourselves from the world. Few or any will understand you, or why you are doing this. To follow Jesus, is to become like Him. If He struggled at times with loneliness, so will you.
I have nothing at all to say to those who want to escape this bitter misery.
I can say no ‘magic words’ that will lift you out of this pain. Sometimes you just might have to plow it through it on your own. But I can tell you that He is wildly and passionately in love with you. You are never alone. Never.
If everyone forsakes you and leaves you standing alone in a tight spot, He will be there.
“For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
Beating depression or loneliness does not start with having more friends, or a relationship, although it can help. It really starts from within and is a process that takes time and care. We can be tempted to scrap friendships because they’re a lot of work. But they maybe one of the keys to healing. Experience has taught me that humans go through life in patterns. (We ‘ll do the same thing over and over again.) Even in different situations, these patterns will be repeated and simply generate the same results. A friend can be a new and strategic solution to breaking free.
Broken Believers 