As women with ever-changing lives, loneliness is bound to come knocking on the doors of our hearts. Often it is the changing part of life that brings about that lonesome feeling. Ruth, Mary, and Esther all shared a loneliness before huge events in their lives. I imagine they experienced the same lull in friendships that we all see from time to time. Accepting the gift of salvation, being promoted at work, having children, graduating, getting married, deciding to homeschool, moving to a new town, choosing not to return to work after starting a family; these are all common times of loneliness. People in our lives pull away or fade away every time a big change enters the scene.
Naturally, we crave companionship and understanding and we look to the people in our lives to fill the need. There is nothing sinful about wanting to be known and loved. If we are to model ourselves after Christ, we’ll have to include being a friend to those in this world. Follower and sinner alike, Jesus befriended and loved the people that surrounded Him. It’s only natural that we would want the same.
The mimicking of Christ can’t stop there. That’s the difference between being in this world and being of it. You can love the people in this world, but you must seek the love of God and God alone. Be pleasing to Him in all things. That’s the balance that Jesus demonstrated for us all.
Love your neighbor, but seek your God.
Who loved man more than Christ? But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:16)
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. (Luke 6:12)
Just as Jesus sought after the Lord God with all His heart, so must we!
Our Creator knows our inner most being and He alone can fill that void that we call loneliness. Let us pray for one another and our bouts of feeling alone. Jesus prayed for Himself, His disciples, for you and for me. (John 17:20-26)
I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me.Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.
Most importantly, Jesus prayed to keep connected with His Father and to stay in His light.
Jesus was never alone, not even in the solitude of that mountain, and He will never leave us lonely! Praise God!
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