Loneliness is a plight that any of us may fall prey to sometime in life because of the loss of a loved one, forsaking of, or rejection by a friend, or melancholy circumstances or spirit. However it is not somewhere God wants us to camp, He did not create us to be lonely, saying “it is not good that man should be alone…” Genesis 2:18. Throughout Scripture we are given to understand that God desires friendship and fellowship with His people, which was severed by sin, and can be restored by Christ. Being created in “His own image; in the image of God” Genesis 1:26-27 we are made to enjoy interaction with Him and with one another. Proverbs 18:24 gives us this practical advice and fact: “A man who has friends must show himself friendly. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Such a relationship is possible between human friends, and God shows Himself to be such a friend. However even Christians may be hit with this emotion of loneliness at sometime. In Psalm 102 the writer seems to have been afflicted and overwhelmed as he pours out his heart to God, speaking of birds with whose habits he was evidently familiar, (not necessarily the same birds we think of by the same names today) in verses 6-7 he says, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness” (never seen except in unfrequented solitudes); I am like an owl of the desert” (dwells in solitudes and old ruins and has a doleful cry) “I lie awake and am like a sparrow alone on the housetop” (“When one of them has lost its mate…he will sit on the house-top alone, and lament by the hour…”), all figures expressing loneliness, a condition God does not want us to linger in. “Lift up you heads” Psalm 24:7,9; “Why are you cast down, O my soul…Hope in God” Psalm 42:5,11 and 43:5 Jesus said “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you” John 14:8, and “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” Matthew 28:20. Yes, “God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble” Psalm 46:1. He has committed to help His people, so He says, “Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5. “Lift up your heads”; “Your sun will shine again.”
Never Alone
By Rose Hill
You said You will never leave or forsake,
I know your promise You won’t break.
I don’t have anything to fear,
In time of need my God is near.
Scripture quotations are form the New King James Version copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. Used by permission