The Cure For Loneliness

The Cure for Loneliness

John 16:31-33

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In the third year of a great drought the word of the Lord came to me and said I was to present myself to King Ahab and give him the message that rain was about to fall on the land (18:1-2)! Even though the king despised me for pointing out his wicked ways (18:18) I approached him with great confidence for the Lord showed me He is ever near by providing me with water to drink from a brook and bread and meat from ravens during this long drought (17:1-6). On the way I met the manager of Ahab’s house, Obadiah a devoted follower of the Lord, and I convinced him despite the personal risk to ask the king to meet me (18:1-15). Confident in the Lord I challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to have their god light their sacrifice and after taunting them relentlessly and them getting no answer (18:27-29), I prayed and God visually demonstrated His might and power by burning even the stones up in the sacrifice I prepared for Him. It was wonderful to hear the people cry “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God” and it was good to have all those false prophets executed (18:38-40). The joy of vindication and the people looking to God was amazing but short lived. When the king told his wife Jezebel what had happened, she made an oath to kill me. Her ruthless reputation of killing the Lord’s prophets (18:4) cut to my very soul and I ran terrified for my life! Feeling like I was the only one left who loved God (19:10) I felt such intense loneliness that I prayed that God would take my life that very day (19:3-5)!

While this monologue is not the direct words of Elijah it does accentuate how easy loneliness creeps into the heart of even a believer! While one might feel confident in one’s faith, rarely are we as strong as we imagine! Let me tell you a story of the boy who thought “he could”

“A number of years ago my first assistant at Tenth Presbyterian Church told me something that he had remembered from his early childhood. He had been helping his father put some things on the dining-room table, and he had asked to carry something that his father judged to be too heavy for him. He argued with his father, making many protestations. “Please, Father, I know I can carry it. I am sure I can.” At last his father let him try. He started out confidently and carefully, but suddenly he dropped the container and the liquid spilled. He told me that he learned one of the great lessons of his life that day as he stood staring down at the spilled mess and the broken container. He felt absolutely chagrined; he had been so sure of himself. But his father had been right after all, and he was wrong.”

Like the father in this story Jesus told the disciples that their presumed, strong faith was actually quite weak. He told them that they would abandon Him and scatter each to his own little world. They would eventually come back to each other’s side but would still feel intense loneliness, as those left shepherdless to face a hostile world! Unfortunately the loneliness that one sees in the eyes of the lepers and hears in the voices of the blind and the beggars of the Bible resonates in our hearts because “no believer traverses all the road to heaven in company” but must experience seasons of perceived or realized isolation.

Reasons why Christians Sometimes Feel Lonely

There are many circumstances in which Christians experience loneliness, a few of which I will mention briefly. The obvious reason many feel alone is due to not having any close friends that one can confide one’s deepest, darkest secrets. Scripture says, “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10) because they can pick each other up but it is far from easy to find unconditional friendship amongst this “self-absorbed” generation. The “absence of a godly society” also means those who choose to obey God’s word will experience the loneliness that comes from being persecuted both within and outside of the church. As weightier issues of holiness go against the norms of our culture those who try to be obey the “forgotten” or less popular doctrines of the Bible are often accused of having an “innovating, fanatical spirit” that is legalistically trying to create schisms inside the church. Another source of loneliness is deep soul-conflict. As the old Adam rages war with our new self we grapple with horrid temptations/sin that we feel are so heinous and unique to us that we dare not share them with another, lest we lose their respect and supposed friendship. Another source of loneliness comes from unnoticed, kingdom labor. The “earnest prayers and deep devotedness” of those who pray and plant seeds that are not publicly visible are often overlooked and feel like they are “alone” in serving. And finally, Christians often feel loneliness with the prospect of death because their “weeping company” of friends and family cannot go with them through the valley of death!