No matter what your status is- single or committed, broke or wealthy- loneliness can strike at any time in our lives, especially on special events like Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Even Jesus felt loneliness as he hung on the cross dying for our sins. He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)Keeping busy does not even help or hide the loneliness one is feeling. Frankly, there are no easy answers on how to handle feeling lonely. The only answer that can be offered is God.
Loneliness may come from people feeling everyone has deserted them.
As long as we live, people we depend on will sometimes abandon us and turn away. There may be only a few friends we can honestly count on. There are even times when no one can be counted on. There is one that we can always count on, and that person is God for He will never abandon us. Psalms 27:10 states, “When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.”
Loneliness affects our self-esteem.
This is the most important and detrimental effect of loneliness. We begin to pick up a distorted image of ourselves. Maybe, I’m not good enough to be with or I’m not that attractive. Just recognize that you are not unlovable. Your value runs deeper than what the world thinks about you, because God has made you, loves you, and promises to never leave you. Psalm 23:4 reads, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Loneliness due to being single.
Many individuals become or feel lonely when they want to have that special someone in their life to share moments with. But it just isn’t happening.
I want to tell these people, to continue holding your heads up and having faith that God will give you your king or queen right on time. Giving up on God will cause you to talk down upon yourself, become discouraged, and fall prey to temptation. We must understand that this society we live in is more concerned with appearance and “who can I hit next” rather than the wholeness of a person.
Continue to have confidence in your potential. The only way to get through any type of loneliness, especially this type, is to give it all to God. Just put it in His hands, because He knows what is best for us. 1 Corinthians 7:17 shines light on being single by letting us know that we must accept whatever situation he has put us in. At times when we desperately want something, we forget to see the beautiful gift of our current situation.
Understand that we are never alone for in Matthew 28:20, Jesus tells us that “…I am with you, even to the end of the age.” We must focus our attention on what God wants us to be doing when single rather than trying to understand why we are single.