If you’re reading this now, I might say u’ve been in this kind of situation before.
Or.. you might being on this station currently?
From what me and my fellows had experienced, being alone is something really irritating. Moreover, several might experience some of frustrating moments.
Do you agree with me, if I say most of WOMEN experience this kind of phase?
At first, I thought I’m just exaggerating after something that’s might seem insignificant to some people.
I tried to seek advice from some of my girls, and they resulted to say the same point.
It’s one of women’s most problematic issues. And we have to overcome this lonesomeness in life, somehow.
Learning from Paul, (well, this why I say most women, not all. I don’t think you dudes experience as painful as we do.. Correct me if I’m wrong.) There’s 3 types of common loneliness (Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional) :
- Loneliness of separation.
- Loneliness of transitions.
- Loneliness of rejections.
Loneliness of Separation
It’s written that Paul never went anywhere alone; he always had at least one traveling companion. Yet, at the end of his life, he’s in prison in a foreign country and he couldn’t just pick up the phone and reached out and touched somebody.
We can experience the loneliness of separation because of military service, career, or maybe an illness. Many of us have lost our roots, or never had any to begin with, and that can cause loneliness.
What can you do about your loneliness from separation?
Focus on the needs of others – Get your eyes off yourself and focus outward. Look at how you can serve other people.
Focus on your purpose – Even when Paul was isolated in a prison, he wanted other people to know about Jesus. He wanted everybody to know about God’s love. He stopped looking at himself and he looked at how he could still tell others about the good news.
When you’re lonely – Stop building walls. instead, start building bridges!
Instead of saying, “I’m so lonely,”
say, “Father, help me be a friend to people who need a friend. Help me to help lonely people.” That is the antidote for loneliness.
Loneliness of transitions.
The fact is, life is a series of transitions.
We’re born, we grow up, we go to school, we graduate, we get jobs, we change jobs, we retire, we die.
And every time we make a change in life, there’s a good chance we’ll feel lonely.
We can even be lonely in a crowd; it doesn’t make any difference how many people are surrounding us.
It’s our relationship with those people that makes a difference.
How can you face loneliness when you’re in transition?
make good use of your time – Think, “What could I do now that would be difficult if other people were around? What could I do in this time of loneliness that I could not do if there were other people here to interrupt me?” Use your time to do something great for God.
stay focused on your purpose – So that at the end of your life, you can say, like Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7 NIV).
Loneliness of rejections.
Loneliness often comes from the feeling that you’ve been betrayed, deserted, or abandoned.
Paul felt deserted when he first went on trial in Rome. He wrote, “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them” (2 Timothy 4:16 NIV).
Here’s one of the greatest Christians in history, but no one came to his support! He says, “But everyone deserted me.” He’s on trial for his life; no one comes to speak for his defense.
Yet, Paul didn’t say, “I’ve spent thirty years in the ministry and this is what I get?” No, instead he said, “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (2 Timothy 4:17 NIV).
The Bible teaches that we have emotional needs and one of our greatest emotional needs is to be accepted.
Rejection is often the most devastating form of hurt.
Loneliness is so painful that people will try anything to relieve it.
They take drugs, they get drunk. They go through long lists of short-lived dating relationships. They coop themselves up in their homes with the TV as their only friend.
God says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV).
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Oh yes I know, THEORETICAL things are much easier for us to tell.
In practice, we often get tired or even failed.
That’s why we need God.
We’re just nothing without His presence in our life!!
Frankly, I’m in this station exactly.
It’s terribly frustrating sometimes, and this is really a test to pull my faith back more next to Him!
Truly, I learned a lot about this loneliness thing, and I feel there’s no ‘enough’ to learn to overcome the loneliness.
It comes by over and over again.
Sometimes, if I feel terribly fatigue, I talk to God and tell Him every spot of pain in my feeling.
Somehow, God answers me differently from time to time.
At once, I might get dreadful, and God gave me easers, any small things. He really knows how to make me smile…
And at sometimes, God can disciplinary His own way. And that makes me stronger to realize how much strength I still have left.
These kinds of things, that makes us closer to God in our lonesomeness.
It’s the thing that ONLY God that knows and understands every of our pain!
I truly experience this..
so let’s learn more, be prepared, and RUN THE RACE WITH ENDURANCE!!
(and again, the song i put up there, journey by angela zhang, comes to rhyme...)
And in the end, we can say these..
For I’m already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:6-7 (NIV)
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