ARTICLE- RESTORATION FROM LONELINESS

RESTORATION FROM LONELINESS

Perhaps the most common malady of soul in our sophisticated age today is loneliness. Whether married or single, rich or poor, a teenager, mid-lifer, or senior citizen, loneliness can strike and depart with the sudden intensity of a summer storm or linger like an arctic winter.

We can be lonely while in the centre of activity at work or home. Laughter and busyness may surround us, but they cannot pierce the darkness of our loneliness. While we sometimes need brief seasons of solitude for God to refresh and renew our weary souls, protracted times of isolation can bring numbing loneliness of the soul. There are no easy answers for handling loneliness.

Our loneliness can become a pathway to God. It may not be a well-marked trail (for each person must walk his own); but God will illumine the path to the man, woman, or young person willing to turn to Him in their pain.

God Knows How You Feel
One of the most comforting truths of the Bible is that we have a Savior God who understands our emotions.
"Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same …" Hebrews 2:14
"Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest …"Hebrews 4:15
"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…" Hebrews 2:17
Because Jesus became man, He shares in the full range of our feelings. While loneliness is not sin (although it can lead to sin through attempts to gain acceptance), it is part of our frail humanity.

Isaiah 53:3 says that Jesus was "despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief …" Christ understands your loneliness for He, too, was lonely at times. Think of childhood.
When He hung on the cross, He uttered these horrible words: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46) Jesus, for the first and only time in eternity, lost fellowship with the Father as He suffered the penalty for our sins. Could there ever have been or ever will be any greater sense of forsakenness?
Jesus can help you during your bouts with loneliness. According to Matthew 11:28-30,
What does Jesus want you to do with your feelings of loneliness?
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Why can you bring your feelings of loneliness to Him in confidence that He will help you? (Hebrews 4:16)..........................................................................

Effects Of Loneliness
1. Loneliness can lead to immoral relationships. Since intimacy with another is one attempt to dispel loneliness, we can seek out immoral relationships. But all the physical contact in the world cannot fill any empty, lonely heart. It may satisfy for a brief season, but the problem remains.
2. Loneliness can impact our finances. Often when we are lonely, we think that purchasing certain items will give us an emotional lift. It may, but it can also put an unnecessary dent in our wallet. Abuse of credit cards can sometimes be futile attempts to break through the enclosing walls of loneliness.
3. Loneliness can damage our self-esteem. This is perhaps the greatest danger in dealing with loneliness. We doubt our worth to God and others. We feel so alone and hopeless. We no longer see ourselves from the perspective of the Scriptures. Loneliness distorts our self-esteem and puts us into false bondage. Lonely people want to reach out to others but feel they cannot.
4. Loneliness can produce physical problems and even lead to suicide. Our bodies and emotions are intertwined. Excessive sieges of loneliness can create physical problems. Worse, the despair can be so great that suicide becomes an option. The ought that nobody cares is a common thread in suicidal cases.

Can you identify any of the above areas where loneliness has impacted your life? Write it down.

According to Jeremiah 29:11 and 32:18 and 27, is God willing and able to help you?......

COMING THROUGH LONLINESS
Loneliness does not have to be a permanent condition of the human heart. Indeed, God can use our times of loneliness to forge new intimacy with Him that will sustain us even in the most desperate moments.

FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD
The first man, Adam, was alone in the Garden of Eden; but there was no indication that he was ever lonely. Quite the opposite seemed evident. He enjoyed exquisite communion with the Father who provided him with a helpmate, Eve, because "… It is not good for the man to be alone … " (Genesis 2:18).

Loneliness of spirit began when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. At that point, all the misery of sin was injected into human existence, including the most painful woe, loss of intimacy with the Father.
Salvation is the reconciliation of man and God and the restoration of intimate fellowship that man was created to partake of and enjoy.

According to Romans 5:10, what was our relationship to God before we received Christ as Savior? ..............................................................................


Read Romans 8:15-17. What is our new relationship to God once we trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sin? ...................................................................

God has adopted every Christian as His child and made them members of His household. God is now our Father, and we are His sons and daughters. That is not only our position but the kind of spiritual intimacy we can have with the living God.

Once we were enemies with God. Now He calls us His friends. Read John 15:14-17. Salvation then is a friendship with God that is never ending.

In times of excruciating loneliness, we can experience the friendship of God in more intimate terms than ever before. You have Christ in you. Wherever you live, wherever you go, you take God for He indwells you through the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16-18).

According to John 15:1-5, your new relationship with Christ is described in what terms?
.....................................................................................

Is there ever a time when you are not in Christ or Christ is not in you? ...............

WHAT KIND OF FRIEND IS GOD?
The surge and staying power of loneliness can sometimes obscure just how wonderful a friend God is to His children. We easily succumb to our feelings rather than clinging to the truth of God's Word.

We may feel forsaken, but God................. (Hebrews 13:5-6)
We may feel hopeless, but God says we actually abound in......... and can be filled with........... (Romans 15:13)
We may feel like giving up, but God says His grace (whatever we need, whenever we need it) is completely................(2 Corinthians 12:9)

We may feel overwhelmed by suffering and pain, but God says we receive a full measure of His...........(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

We may feel as if life is too burdensome to continue, but God says our troubles come so we may.........................................................(2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

We may feel as if God has forgotten us, but God always.................(1 Peter 5:7)

We may not feel God's presence, but He has promised that He is............(Matthew 28:20; Psalm 139)

We may feel defeated, but God says He always leads us in His....... (2 Corinthians 2:14)

We may feel that God is deaf to our cries, but the Bible tells us that He........... our prayers. (Psalm 116:1-2)

What kind of friend do we have in Jesus? A friend who hears us, comforts us, cares for us, allows us to share in His triumph over sin and Satan, fills us with His hope, peace, and joy, and provides abundant grace to meet every demand.

REACHING OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES
God made us for intimacy with others as well. Although only Christ alone can meet the deepest pain of loneliness (for even the best friend can fail you), we do need contact and fellowship with other individuals for a healthy, balanced life.

Obviously, this is where the person mired in loneliness finds such great barriers. He is lonely to some extent because he has not found another person with whom he can share his burdens. However, God knows our need for one another. That is why he designed the body of Christ to function as a unit of believers, each helping one another through the exercise of spiritual gifts. He gives us encouragement, comfort, and help through the fellowship and assistance of another person.
David had Jonathan. Moses had Joshua. Elijah had Elisha. Paul had Timothy, Barnabas, and Silas. When Jesus sent the seventy out to minister in His name, He sent them out in pairs.

HOW CAN YOU REACH OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF WHEN YOU FEEL ALL ALONE?
Pray for a bridge of friendship with one person. Pray specifically for God to provide the right person who will encourage you and whom you also can help. Then wait on God to provide His answer.

Read Psalm 32:8. What does God promise to do for you?...............................

Read 1 Kings 19. Describe how Elijah felt. Who did God provide to be Elijah's friend and successor? Is He able to guide you to a special friend? .............................

Ephesians 2:10 says God has created us for .......................................

Do those good works involve helping others?........ Can you think of some activity in your church, your neighborhood, your work place where you can be a servant?............

Ask God to show you where He can use you to accomplish the good works He has ordained.
Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, do something for someone else. It will help keep your mind off your troubles and perhaps be a partial span in building the bridge of friendship with another Christian.

That bridge may seem like tightrope right now, but God wants to use you to help others. In the process, He sends His encouragement to you. He will give you the courage to do what you need to do.

Delight in the friendship of God, replace depressing feelings with God's everlasting truth. Take one small step of faith to serve another, and you will be on God's pathway out of loneliness. It may take some time, but God will bring you through your pain.

THE FATHER'S HEART
Loneliness does not have to be feared or even avoided. God desires to take such seasons to bring us closer to Him, to make us truly understand that we are complete in Christ. It is a time to listen to Him, wait on Him, and rest in His sufficiency.

PRAYER TO OVERCOME LONLINESS
Thank You, Lord, that You are my Father who never fails me, never forsakes, never leaves me. I bring my feelings of loneliness to You and ask that You fill my emptiness with Yourself. Lord, You also know I need a good friend with whom I can share my hurts. I will trust You to guide me, knowing that only Your presence can satisfy my deepest longings. Thank You for being my Friend who walks with me ad talks with me.

Thank You for understanding my pain and giving me Your grace and mercy to help me.

God's Word For You
2 Timothy 4:16-18
John 14:15-18

Lamentations 3:19-25
2 Corinthians 7:5-6

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18
Psalm 42:5-11

2 Samuel 22:29
Isaiah 42:3