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Are you a lonely person? With the presence of Christ in our lives, we need not be lonely, no matter how alone we may be.
Why, then, are so many Christians lonely? Because they don’t know the presence of Christ in their lives as God intended them to. That could be because there is some sin that keeps them from sweet, intimate fellowship with God. If you’re a disobedient Christian, that could be the cause of your loneliness since it’s destroying the sense of God’s presence in your life.
Many Christians don’t know God’s presence because they don’t spend time with him. If you’re not saturating your life with God’s Word and prayer, then don’t be surprised to discover that you are frequently lonely.
Many are lonely because they refuse to change their thinking about aloneness. They’re like the little boy who was afraid of going to bed in the dark. His father said to him, “Son, you don’t have to be afraid. Jesus is with you.” And the boy replied, “I know, Dad, but I want someone with skin on.” So often when I share with a lonely person that Jesus can dispel their loneliness, their non-verbal reaction is: “Yes, but that’s not the way I want it to be. I want someone with skin on.”
Not long after I had come back to God and made him Lord of my life, I was sitting in my office one Wednesday when it occurred to me that I was facing a weekend with no plans! For singles—or at least for me at that time—that was the worst of all fates, and in a slight panic I reached for my phone to start calling friends. And as I started to dial, the Holy Spirit quietly said to me, “Can’t you trust me? The weekends are in my control just as much as the other days. You can make it through a weekend alone—WITH ME!”
Somewhat fearfully, I said, “Okay, Lord, I’ll prove that you are God of the weekends, too.” So, I made plans to be alone with God for those two weekend evenings. There were some tense moments when I again found myself thinking, “Something must be wrong with me, or I wouldn’t be by myself on a Saturday evening.”
But I took my Bible, sat down and asked God to again show me he was God, even of the weekends. I ran into God as my refuge, and I was free. Free from the need to have someone around all the time; free from those self-pitying, self-centered feelings of loneliness. I’m married now—after many years as a single—and I’m just so glad I learned that lesson long ago. God took the fear and the desperateness of loneliness away from me. He wants to do the same for you.