Lonely no more

I was talking with an elderly woman yesterday who just lost her husband to see how she was doing and she was very candid with me. Her response was, “Lonely !”   Having been married for nearly sixty years her remark is very understandable. All of a sudden the person closest to you is gone, the one you laughed and cried with, the one you shared precious moments with, etc.  — Gone !    Death is certainly a sad reminder of the problem of sin.

Yet as Christians we know death thankfully really isn’t the end, those brief (in light of eternity) interruptions in our relationships caused by death will be renewed forever all because of what Christ did at Calvary’s cross !  But let’s apply our loneliness and sadness to the cross for a bit here. Death is not the only thing that can foster loneliness and grief. We can all experience these feelings even when we do the right thing.  Jesus alluded to this in Matt.10:34-36 when He said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law (that one usually is pretty easy, ha). And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”

What did He mean? Doesn’t that seem to conflict with the angel’s announcement of His birth as they proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”?  (Lk.2:14).  What Christ was teaching was that though the acceptance of the gospel ultimately brings us peace with God sometimes the immediate result can be conflict when we accept that or when we stand for any truth and those we know dislike that.  Faithfulness to the Word can be a lonely place, at least initially as we take a firm stand on what God has said. What happened at Calvary was meant to unite us all with God and each other but what gets in the way is not God, but the sin of man, hence lonlieness is a sad byproduct of it.

Whether its proclaiming you’re a Christian and people reject you for that or taking a loving stand on some principle of the Scriptures and others opt for a more popular, worldly position we can feel lonely at times. Rest assured though what you feel in those cases is NOT what is reality !  God is very near and dear to you when you are placed in a position to take a side and you choose Him.  Listen to what Paul wrote about this, “Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will RECEIVE YOU. And will be a FATHER UNTO YOU, and YE shall be MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2Cor.6:17-18).  A special intimacy is promised by the Lord when you are, for example, pressured by someone at work or elsewhere to do wrong and you do right, but then feel lonely.  He is there, He is aware, and He will take care !      So don’t keep feeling lonely, walk by faith and keep doing right – He’ll bless you tremendously for it.   “And lo I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS. . . ”  Matt.28:20.