This crisis has only furthered our battle with loneliness. What hope can we find in Scripture, and specifically the life of Jesus?

<p>This crisis has only furthered our battle with loneliness. What hope can we find in Scripture, and specifically the life of Jesus?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

CORE Evangelism School

Dee Casper

What to Do with Loneliness

God in heaven, I thank you that you love us so much.

And that as we're living in a time where we're socially isolated and prone to feel even more alone than usual, and that's in a society that is already feeling quite alone.

Lord, I just pray that you would speak into that pain tonight, that you would speak into that experience and that you would bless us, that you would help us, that you would fight for us.

And Lord, I pray that you would give us a picture of your heart this evening, and that it would do something for us that none of us would soon forget.

Father, I don't have what these people need, and I can't help them.

And so I just pray that you would speak, and that you would do something wonderful.

All right, welcome y'all, and I'm sure more people will join us as we go, which is totally fine, but I'm glad that you're here.

And so what I'd like to do is begin this thing.

Loneliness is something that's been on the rise in the last few years.

We see that with the advent of social media that has only made matters worse.

What we thought would make us more social and more available and more connected has made us feel more alone than ever.

But now that we add on top of this social distancing and quarantine and so forth, it's made it really, really difficult, very difficult for people.

And so I think that mental health challenges as a result of all of what's going on are on the rise even more, and we need to be checking in with people.

We need to be looking in to see how they're doing and so forth.

But so I want to speak into this particular topic of loneliness.

In the beginning, in Genesis chapter 2, the Bible begins with showing that man is alone in Genesis 2 verses 18 to 22, that Adam is brought into existence in a state where he's alone.

In fact, it says that twice in the narrative of Genesis 2.

And seeing the animals all having maids and partners seems to awaken him to this reality, that he himself does not have a helper comparable to him.

But I'm coming to believe that had that not been the case, Had there not been animals that would show him that they had partners and he didn't have a partner, I would assume that Adam would have no idea that his relationship with God left him with any other vacancies.

And he could have been content with that.

And I think there's a lesson for us there that many times it's our looking at everybody else and the expectations of society that can make us feel more alone than is healthy or necessary.

We feel alone because so-and-so has a relationship and we don't.

We feel alone because all these people in the movies have relationships and we don't and so forth.

But God does affirm the fact that being alone is not in man's best interest, right, in nearly all cases.

And after developing a relationship with God first, then Adam receives a wife tailor-made to the call that God has given him after that takes place, once he comes to know who he is in Jesus.

Now in Psalm chapter 25, verses 16 to 17, it says this, it says, verses 16 to 17, says this.

It says, Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

And David knew what to do with his emotions.

Sometimes we don't know how to handle it.

We don't know who to talk to, who to share it with, how to navigate it.

But David knew to bring his emotions to God.

Dude is just mad, super mad, like knock the teeth out of my enemies, make their children childless, like he's just really mad, but he's not airing his grievances to social media or even to the people he's got beef with.

Life can wear us down and really lead us to feel alone and King David truly understood this.

His brother spoke unbelief into him while he was doing the right thing.

King Saul turned on him when he was doing the right things And as a result of his sin with Bathsheba, a curse is going to come now to his family line.

His son ends up turning on him and he had to flee for his life.

Now, when you've been rejected or hurt by family or people who should have been leading you for good, it can make you incredibly lonely.

Right, When the very people that you would think would be there for you aren't, it hurts.

And it can lead us to feel incredibly alone.

But throughout the Psalms we see that David knew that he could find his answer in bringing those feelings to God.

I think there's a very important lesson for you and I in that very thing.

Here's another example, Moses in Exodus chapter 2.

Moses is born in a Jewish home, in an Israelite home, while they're in Egypt.

The book of Exodus begins with this idea that this Pharaoh knew nothing of or had forgotten Joseph.

And so these bunch of Hebrews are here, what do we do with them?

And Moses, there's a decree given to kill all the Hebrew boys, and Moses is placed in this basket and along the river and so forth, ends up being adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.

And As a result of this, Moses is in a higher echelon in Egypt.

He has a very high status in society, but he also seems to realize that his call is to deliver his own people from Egypt.

He senses that this is the call that God has given him.

I think it's in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen is giving this booming historical discourse and treaties on the nation of Israel.

And he says that he seemed to have believed that the people would know that he was to deliver them.

So not only was Moses convinced of his call, he also was convinced of his ability to carry out that call.

God places a call in our heart and we're like, ooh, I couldn't do that.

I'm just, I don't think I can handle that.

But in this situation, Moses is sure of the fact that he can do what needs to be done.

And then when it all blows up in his face and he has to run from Egypt to save his life, you can imagine that he was just overwhelmed with a crippling amount of loneliness.

He's had to leave his family, the family he had made in Pharaoh's family.

He's had to leave his own Israelite family, his own people group, and he's just out in the wilderness on his own, doubting everything he's ever known.

It had to be a crippling amount of loneliness.

Maybe everything you thought about your call is wrong.

So Moses was very well acquainted with loneliness, disappointment, grief, etc.

I'll tell you somebody else who was acquainted with loneliness.

In chapter 18 of 1 Kings, Elijah, though he has to stand alone because he's secure in God's call and who he is, is not fazed by that aloneness.

With great boldness and zeal, he declares to the people on top of Mount Carmel, if God is God, worship him.

And yet in this situation, we're told in Prophets and Kings that not 1 person stands in allegiance for Jehovah.

There are Israelites on top of this mountain, not just prophets of Baal.

Prophets of Baal, Ahab, Israelites, no 1 claims allegiance to Jehovah but Elijah, And yet this does not cause him to shirk or waver at all in the call that God has given him.

But once hardship comes his way and his life is threatened, he's overwhelmed with feelings of loneliness and helplessness.

It is enough, O Lord, I want to die as my father's.

And Prophets and Kings points out to us that he never wanted to set eyes on a human being ever again.

What a crazy experience to be unafraid, bold, and devout and not feel alone even though you're the only person standing for God.

And then within hours of this, you're running for your life, you're depressed, you're lonely, you're discouraged, you don't even want to live anymore.

Man, even when God sends an angel to help Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 19, he takes no consolation in the help that he's given.

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What to Do with Loneliness

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