January 30, 2025
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.—Ephesians 1:5
The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve in His image (Genesis 1:27–28). He created humankind for relationship, as He Himself exists eternally in relationship—God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As beings created in His image, we naturally seek relationship, friendship, and community.
God didn’t intend for people to face life alone or to live in isolation from others (Romans 12:5; Ecclesiastes 4:9–12). He intended for humankind to live, love, and share their lives with others (Hebrews 10:24–25). However, the great fragmentation of family life and communities that has taken place in contemporary culture has created what has been referred to as an “epidemic of loneliness.”
In today’s world, self-sufficiency and independence are elevated and considered virtues. The myth of independence and self-reliance exalted in the media, social media, and advertising promote the message that to admit that as human beings we need each other is a sign of weakness. We are told that individuals should look out for themselves first and foremost, and seek self-fulfillment. And yet we see that loneliness and isolation are some of the great ills of our time. Social isolation and loneliness are a greater risk to human flourishing than in previous periods of history where greater interdependence existed and community life was the fabric of society.
When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are adopted into God’s family as children of God for eternity (John 1:12). “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1). God is our Father (2 Corinthians 6:18) and Jesus has called us His friends (John 15:15). We are heirs to the kingdom of God (Romans 8:14–17) and we belong to His family—His church, the body of believers (Ephesians 2:19–22).
These inalterable truths are ours as Christians—even if we find ourselves alone in this world and struggling with loneliness and isolation. Our hope is not in this world, but in heaven. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For … your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).
There is a deep sense of sadness and despair when we feel that we are alone in the world and are friendless, that no one cares for us personally or would be there for us in our deepest time of need. David in the Bible experienced a deep sense of loneliness at times and cried out to God in his despair. “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16). And later in the psalms, he goes on to proclaim: “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home” (Psalm 68:5–6).
God wants us to love others and be in relationship with other people, which is how He designed us as human beings, and commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). But the first place in our hearts and lives must be reserved for Him. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Only Jesus can satisfy our soul and will never leave nor forsake us, and nothing will ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:38–39).
Saint Augustine (354–430 AD) once wrote: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” God has created a special place in our hearts that only He can fill. The human spirit, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in your body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great and loving Spirit who created it.
The world will try to satisfy that longing in your soul,
You may search the wide world over but you’ll be just as before.
You’ll never find true satisfaction until you’ve found the Lord,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
And only He can change your heart and make you whole;
He’ll give you peace you never knew
Sweet love and joy and Heaven too,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
—Lanny Wolfe
There are times when the Lord allows us to experience loneliness, and He empathizes with us during those times. The Bible tells us that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). Sometimes the Lord allows us, His children, to feel lonesome to draw us closer to Him and to enrich and deepen our relationship with Him and remind us that our eternal future is with Him. We are reminded that, as the old gospel song expresses, “this world is not our home, we’re just passing through.”
The story is told of the famous Christian songwriter, George Matheson (1842–1906). He was deeply in love and soon to be married, when his doctor broke the news to him that he was losing his sight and would be a blind man within six months. He was heartbroken, and he didn’t think it fair to his fiancée to not tell her the truth and give her the choice whether to go ahead with the marriage.
So he went to her house that night and they sat on the couch holding hands and chatting about the day, until finally he plucked up the courage to tell her the news that he would be blind by their wedding date. He felt her hand quiver and loosen its grasp, as it was withdrawn from his, and she burst into tears and said, “I’m so sorry, George, but I can’t marry you!”
Crushed, and heartsick, his whole world falling apart, he walked despondently back to his home, where he sat down alone at his desk and thought about how the only thing that he had left in the world was Jesus. Then he took a piece of paper and his old quill pen and he wrote a hymn that has since been a comfort to millions:
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee.
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.
The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that you will never again be completely alone—no matter what you face in this world—because you will always have Jesus. Even when everything else has passed away, you will still have Jesus. When others forsake you or loved ones depart from this life, Jesus will always be with you. When friends and family desert you because they are not willing to accept that you’ve become a Christian, you will still have Jesus. Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). When it seems like there is nothing left for you in this world, you will still have Jesus—and He is enough.
Another reason why the Lord sometimes allows Christians to experience loneliness is so that they will reach out to other lonely hearts with Jesus’ love and comfort. There are so many people around us each day who are lonely and seeking for true love and eternal hope, as we once were before we were adopted into God’s family (Ephesians 1:5). You can step out by faith and talk to someone today about Jesus and help them to find eternal joy—not just friendship and companionship, but the love of God that will satisfy their deepest need for love and fellowship forever (1 John 4:8).
Reach out to someone today and discover what wonders God’s love can do. You’ll find peace and joy and fulfillment in your own life as you reach out to other lonely hearts. As you show outgoing concern and care for them, you can point them to the Lord, who is the only one who can truly satisfy the deepest longings of every heart. As you guide them to the Bible, they will find truth, answers, hope, and promise for the future, no matter what circumstances they face on earth.
God’s love and Word is meant to be shared with others, and the love He places in your heart is meant to be given away freely. “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back” (Luke 6:38). If you’re sincerely concerned about others and share God’s love with them, God has promised that, as you give and share with others, He will pour back into your life.
As Christians, we know that Jesus alone can satisfy the deepest yearning of every human heart for love, acceptance, and understanding. He is the only one who can truly satisfy that emptiness and loneliness that we all experience at times in our lives. When we remind ourselves of the beautiful promises He has made regarding all that awaits us in the next life in heaven, this helps to remind us that the trials and tribulations of this present life are not worth comparing to the glory that has been promised to us in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:18).
From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished January 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
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