LONELY BUT NEVER ALONE
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: "Eensaam maar nooit alleen"
Someone wrote to me about loneliness – and I'm just taking two sentences out of the letter and then share my answer with you.
"I feel so alone today. I have been praying for someone special in my life for years…”
I want to start by mentioning, just so that you may know that I personally understand what it is like to be lonely.
First there was the time, after my ex-wife left me for another man.
I was very lonely then because my children were no longer with me either.
I just want to mention that I married her before my or her conversion.
Then my wife, with whom I had been married for 34 years, passed away and I was alone in my apartment, reliant on myself.
Just so you can know when I'm talking, I know what I'm talking about – I was there.
The first thing you can know is this –
Our Lord is with His children all the time and we may be lonely, because we do not have a life partner with us, for we were created as social beings:
GEN 2:18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
However, we as His children, are never alone:
MAT 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
JOHN 14:16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.PSALM 68:19 Praise the Lord; praise God our Savior! For each day He carries us in His arms. (NLT)
I think when people then sometimes stepped in unexpectedly at my apartment, they probably thought I’ve lost it when they hear how I was talking to someone who no one can see – but I enjoy talking with my Lord and Saviour.
Of course, I do not know the reason why you are lonely, just as I do not know why I again had to be lonely at that time, but remember that you, as a child of our Lord, should never start a relationship with the opposite sex before you determined whether the person gave his/her heart to our Lord Jesus.
I always put it this way:
"Never give your heart to someone of the opposite sex, unless you are very sure that the person has already given his/her heart to Jesus."
2COR 6:14 -18
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."
I've heard a lot of people say, and most of those I've heard of are ladies:
"Once we are married, I will lead him to our Lord."
Believe me when I tell you –
There are many ways to minister in the Word but to marry someone, and then afterwards try to lead the person to our Lord, is not one of them.
Pray regularly to our Lord to send you a Christian partner who suits you.
Then be on the lookout for that partner and while staying on the lookout for the partner who suits you, starting with your life you are living –
Carry out the command to the best of your ability, which our Lord has given to each of His disciples:
MAT 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
MAT 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
I would also like to encourage you, as you carry out this command, to remember that Jesus ministered and helped people and we must do the same.
1 PETER 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:
Get involved in your congregation's activities and if you can, also join an organization that does community service of some kind. Pray that our LORD will lead you where He want to use you and remember – obedience leads to Miracles – you may just meet your partner in such a wonderful way while carrying out His instruction.
MARK 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Do not give the enemy a hold on your thoughts or your free time.
Remember the saying: "Laziness is the devil's pillow". Give your free time to our LORD with love for Him and for your fellow man.
Then as you do this, remember that you are lonely for the present, because you do not have a life partner, but you are never alone.
The Amplified Bible put it this way:
MAT 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Greetings,
Sakkie