Does anyone else experience intense periods of loneliness. Being a follow of Our Saviour this is inevitable. As for me i have never had friends .This is the price i am paying when seperating myself from the world. Though i make an effort to be good to all it seems throughout my life i dont have anyone i can confide in or hang with. Even amongst Christians. Maybe its me. How do others perceive me, i just dont know.
The Lonliness of being a Christian
- Thread starter maccauk11
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Brad Huber
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Sinse I dont know you, I cant figure out if your social skills need help, or their is just no one that cares for the Lord as you do, thats in your life. You may want to pray that the Lord would send you someone to be a friend to you, and to work on your socialization skills. We will find it hard to win anyone to Christ if our demeanor is sad or shy.
Hi
Thanks for the reply. Dont get me wrong i function great amongst others at all levels. I have a nack for getting to know people very easily and strangers i can make them feel like we have known each others for years. But thats as far it goes .Its the fact i seem to be destined to a life of loneliness. I come home form work and thats it. I never go anywhere with anyone or no one ever calls me etc. I not shy or sad. I have good relations at work with workmates. A good sense of humour, i treat everyone the same whether they are the queen of England or a homeless person.
Thanks for the reply. Dont get me wrong i function great amongst others at all levels. I have a nack for getting to know people very easily and strangers i can make them feel like we have known each others for years. But thats as far it goes .Its the fact i seem to be destined to a life of loneliness. I come home form work and thats it. I never go anywhere with anyone or no one ever calls me etc. I not shy or sad. I have good relations at work with workmates. A good sense of humour, i treat everyone the same whether they are the queen of England or a homeless person.
Brad Huber
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If your social skills are good, then its best you pray (and I will as well) for a good christian friend to come into your life. Expect it to happen, and look for it, for God loves to give good gifts to His children and a good christian friend is definately a great and godly gift. My good christian friend is my wife, but even her and I are still quite different in our faith, hers is much more reserved, but still honest and true.
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Quasicentennium
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Having a partner in marriage does bring comfort especially having a family where raising children of God who will become followers of Christ during their adult years to bring the gospel to the world. We all wonder how Jesus will come soon hopefully in this 21st century to bring us together: to socialize with Christ-transformed minds and bodies of Christ where we can communicate better and listen clearer without failure of poor memory or choosing the wrong words as we speak, or suffer hearing loss during the conversation.
Your local newspaper classified adverstisements or online social websites like Facebook can help the community connect to friends and families without actually visiting them. I sometimes go to church on Sundays to hear the Word of God from the pastor's speech and how the Word is helping to bring courage and confidence of Jesus in whatever problem issues and challenges of life.
I can understand the cause and effect that sin does to prevent the full potential of our minds and bodies to achieve success. If only Adam and Eve did as God told them then loneliness would not be experienced if God marooned Satan in another universe where no sunlight would shine. I believe God would have continued to create adult man and woman couples from dust without the need for child-breeding woman pregnancy.
It's not a life-wasting experience if you remain single as a Christian because Jesus was himself single, as we all know, who showed a heroic-like responsibility to help the poor and sick. I suppose you might have the urge to help those in need if you had spare time such as helping as a volunteer for your local council or charity such as Salvation Army .:*;.
Your local newspaper classified adverstisements or online social websites like Facebook can help the community connect to friends and families without actually visiting them. I sometimes go to church on Sundays to hear the Word of God from the pastor's speech and how the Word is helping to bring courage and confidence of Jesus in whatever problem issues and challenges of life.
I can understand the cause and effect that sin does to prevent the full potential of our minds and bodies to achieve success. If only Adam and Eve did as God told them then loneliness would not be experienced if God marooned Satan in another universe where no sunlight would shine. I believe God would have continued to create adult man and woman couples from dust without the need for child-breeding woman pregnancy.
It's not a life-wasting experience if you remain single as a Christian because Jesus was himself single, as we all know, who showed a heroic-like responsibility to help the poor and sick. I suppose you might have the urge to help those in need if you had spare time such as helping as a volunteer for your local council or charity such as Salvation Army .:*;.
Justin Gilbert
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I am going to be short sweet and simply the closer you get to God the smaller the crowd becomes.To be honest sometimes we need to be that way because other people will tear you down and will not help you with your growth in Christ.I encourage you to find like minded friends like you who love to do the the work of the Lord.Not all "so called CHRISTIANS' will be who they say they are that is why God has given people the gift of DISCERNING OF SPIRITS. I want you to to keep they faith and do what God says do and remember what I am telling you.
Ophel
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One of the main reasons Jesus has established churches for His people is so that loneliness will be completely eliminated and allayed in the life of the believer.
.
Waggles
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Wow, you must be my twin brother.
I have often been accused of being "super-spiritual" because I quote the Book and conduct myself according to scripture. Mind you though I do have the Holy Spirit
to strengthen me, and to convict me of my wrongdoings. He really does teach one of Jesus.
But, I have found that other christians often do not like being shown up, that they walk in the flesh, or that they forget to love and be charitable.
And I am not talking about being self-righteous and going around judging and condemning others.
Just simply walking in the Spirit will very much separate you from the multitudes.
I have been lonely by myself, enduring my own company as a widower for 20 years now. And I have been a black sheep ostracized by my own Fellowship
for some 19 years. I refuse to be churchy and hang out in social cliques talking only to my friends.
I take being born again and given the great commission very seriously; and I go out of my way to help and assist those outside of our Fellowship.
There is the hope of an opportunity for preaching and demonstrating Christ and the gospel to them.
Philippians 2:
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Matthew 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Luke 6:
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you,
and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven:
for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Never forget what this is all about - the salvation of our souls unto eternal life.
Run the race so as to finish it.
TheWidowsOffering
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@maccauk11
Hello, I remember this article I stumbled upon and read here on TJ before, can't find the thread already, but I was able to share and post it somewhere. It's a long read, but it's worth. Your question has also been my question before. And the article gave me encouragement and help in such times. Amen
Blessings.
The Saint Must Walk Alone
by: A W Tozer
Most of the world's great souls have been lonely.
Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness. In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man's creation), that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries. Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvian, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man "whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart"? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There, alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone, the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of per-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness. They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the crowd and into long periods of heaviness. "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children," cried one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.
Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes. He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but God's to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret message of God to the worshiping heart.
Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for the first time to say brightly, "Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, `I will never leave you nor forsake you,' and `Lo, I am with you always.' How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?"
Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul, but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. "They all forsook Him, and fled."
The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature. God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship is completely natural and right. The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share inner experiences, he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.
The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul - and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord's house. He has seen that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered, "He has seen a vision."
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.
It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd - that Christ is All in All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life's summum bonum.
Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.
The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food, they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the widow. "God will not suffer you to lose anything by it," he told them. "You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the Lord will make it up to you." This is typical of the great mystics and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful "adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.
Hello, I remember this article I stumbled upon and read here on TJ before, can't find the thread already, but I was able to share and post it somewhere. It's a long read, but it's worth. Your question has also been my question before. And the article gave me encouragement and help in such times. Amen
Blessings.
The Saint Must Walk Alone
by: A W Tozer
Most of the world's great souls have been lonely.
Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness. In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange darkness that came soon after the dawn of man's creation), that pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries. Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvian, found grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man "whose soul was alike a star and dwelt apart"? As far as we know not one word did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There, alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone, the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of per-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness. They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the crowd and into long periods of heaviness. "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children," cried one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.
Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes. He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but God's to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret message of God to the worshiping heart.
Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for the first time to say brightly, "Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, `I will never leave you nor forsake you,' and `Lo, I am with you always.' How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?"
Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul, but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. "They all forsook Him, and fled."
The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature. God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship is completely natural and right. The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share inner experiences, he is forced to walk alone. The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.
The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul - and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord's house. He has seen that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered, "He has seen a vision."
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.
It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd - that Christ is All in All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life's summum bonum.
Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.
The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food, they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the widow. "God will not suffer you to lose anything by it," he told them. "You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the Lord will make it up to you." This is typical of the great mystics and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful "adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.
dh charles
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tHAT'S IT. gET SO INVOLVED IN YOU CHURCH AND GO FOR YOUR WALK WITH JESUS WITHOUT CRITISIZING THE COLOR OF PAINT ON THE WALL OR THE SECTULAR WORLD. I KNOW FROM EXPERIECE THAT A PERSON COULD BE TOO ANAL RETENTIVE.....HANG ON TO THINGS SO THAT IT STEALS YOUR JOY.. I didn't mean caps, they just got stuck.
Coconut
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- 4,663
Reading that was like looking in a mirror
Its a long long long road, (so wanted to type it`s a long long way to Tipperary here :whistle) and I suspect there are a lot of LONE people on it. It`s nice when someone catches up or slows down long enough to walk alongside, but there seems to be many of us who mostly walk alone. I think Jesus walked
this road alone, a LOT. And when He was not walking alone, He probably often longed for a little solitude, if His oft going to a 'quiet place' tells us anything.
It helps to not dwell on the loneliness, and think instead about who you can reach out to, online - offline... be so focused on serving others you forget about yourself..(there`s always the lonely to be found in every place, look on the streets for the homeless, in the shelters,youth centers, nursing homes, hospitals, jails)
-and if at night your pillow insists on talking about how lonely you are, hopefully you will be too tired from serving others all day to stay awake and listen to feathers.
I`m on my third cup of coffee....sorry if this post lacks sense and sensibility :coffee:
Coconut
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I have to add that our Lord never leaves us completely alone, He always ensures we are given the fellowship - companionship - help -encouragement we need when we really need it ~ be it Himself by His own Spirit, Angels, or mere humans. Anyone who has been walking with Him for any length of time must have already found this to be a very truth. He does not leave us comfortless, not even for a moment!
I can only come to the conclusion, if I find myself alone, He must have deemed, I needed time alone -
to listen, to learn, to prepare, to grow stronger, wiser, to increase in strength of talents...rest in this understanding of His ways, trust the process....
Sandra Kring — 'The tiny seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, struggle to reach the light.'
I can only come to the conclusion, if I find myself alone, He must have deemed, I needed time alone -
to listen, to learn, to prepare, to grow stronger, wiser, to increase in strength of talents...rest in this understanding of His ways, trust the process....
Sandra Kring — 'The tiny seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, struggle to reach the light.'
dh charles
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- Oct 16, 2015
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Reading that was like looking in a mirror
Its a long long long road, (so wanted to type it`s a long long way to Tipperary here :whistle) and I suspect there are a lot of LONE people on it. It`s nice when someone catches up or slows down long enough to walk alongside, but there seems to be many of us who mostly walk alone. I think Jesus walked
this road alone, a LOT. And when He was not walking alone, He probably often longed for a little solitude, if His oft going to a 'quiet place' tells us anything.
It helps to not dwell on the loneliness, and think instead about who you can reach out to, online - offline... be so focused on serving others you forget about yourself..(there`s always the lonely to be found in every place, look on the streets for the homeless, in the shelters,youth centers, nursing homes, hospitals, jails)
-and if at night your pillow insists on talking about how lonely you are, hopefully you will be too tired from serving others all day to stay awake and listen to feathers.
I`m on my third cup of coffee....sorry if this post lacks sense and sensibility :coffee:
I too have a special loneliness that not many people understand. I suggest finding some way to express yourself, preferable not too long before bedtime.The main thing I do is to find something positive to do with my brain, now it is not something to obligate myself with but something I get a lot of pleasure in doing in my free time.This gives me now a sense of well being and or accomplishment. It sort of gives me permission for my mind to stop long enough to go to sleep, Instead of counting your sheep, feed your sheep.... at night. If in the daytime be gentle with your sheep and compartmentalize anything you think a lot about.......slow down your mind and don't not let your mind get your goat.You will find after a while the sheep at night will help you here also...if you know what I mean..
You have to,of course, find your own thing. I don't think it should be immoral or breaking the law, LOL. Seriously, there are a lot of things you could do. You just need to find your thing.
I will not get anymore psychological now, because the source of any unrequited feelings do not matter at this point. Besides it may not be as bad as all that after all.
Good Luck and God Bless
hulahoop14
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I see your post is a couple of months old -- has anything changed? It's hard to know how to respond without knowing you better and knowing more about your situation. I myself have always been the type of person who has had one or two close friends, but that's it. I don't have a large social circle, and I never have. I've been that way my entire life, and I think in my case it has a lot to do with how God made me. If I'm in a party or social type of gathering, I get thoroughly exhausted and it drains me of energy. I am not a chit chat sort of person, and tend to prefer purposeful, meaningful, one-on-one type of conversations. And I also can get along just fine with people at work. That being said, I've had times in my life when I had a Jonathan-David type friend, and I've had times where I've had no one in my life who I connect with. And during those times when I had no one, I was active in church, I had people around me who would pray for me if I needed it, but I wouldn't have considered any of them actual friends with whom I had a close, deep sort of connection. So I think I kind of know what you mean. But in all of those times, God still had a plan and purpose for those situations. So I guess my encouragement would be to seek the Lord, seek what He has for you, ask for a friend or friends, and see how He answers you and what He reveals to you about your situation. And just be faithful to serve Him and worship Him in whatever ways and opportunities He gives you.
hulahoop14
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I would also encourage you to realize we do not have a Savior who cannot identify with our struggles. I remember a time when I was feeling particularly lonely and I was home, sitting on my bed, in the dark, crying and sad, and I really felt the Lord impress upon my heart that He was lonely too and that He was acquainted with loneliness. So take solace in the fact that He identifies with you. This touch from Him was comforting for me. This is found in Hebrews 4. He is our great high priest who can identify with us. Just take His hand, continue to walk with Him, and see how He answers you. He loves and cares about you tremendously.
LordKnows
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I too have felt a sense of loneliness to an extent. But then I remember what Jesus himself said - He will NEVER leave me or forsake me. No matter how dark it may seem. No matter how hidden I think I am & how secretive God is with me always.
Jesus himself will show you himself if you just believe in him & him alone.
We are never alone when we believe.
Jesus himself will show you himself if you just believe in him & him alone.
We are never alone when we believe.
dh charles
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- Oct 16, 2015
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- 211
Lord knows, no pun intended, just how many lonely people they are. We try to remedy the loneliness by others, pets, doing things, looking forward to things, buying things, being greedy and thinking you have power over loneliness, doing tasks, hobbies or not, and careers that turn us into work-a-holics, sexual permissiveness, and in a combination of one or two things that I have listed above and also others contrived out of hysteria. If you don't know the secret that drives you so then one become a criminal of them self or against others. If you do know the secrete that drives you it is then all about hysteria until you control it instead of it controlling you.
The above is purely in human context. If you want to save ALOT of time you should let God and his son guide your wisdom and daily life. It is sad but true that even here one can become a person that puts I in the center. This is the result of temptation. When tempted by temptation wait on the Lord and let the helper or Holy Spirit lead you out. They will lead you EVEN WHILE YOU STRUGGLE WITH SIN until you discover what it is THEY want you to learn. At this point LET IT AND DO NOT GO BACK...give it up to the lord. If after you have truly learned THEIR lesion(s) and still the devil will not leave you alone.......just say God help me and HE will if you truly believe in His wisdom.... and then the devil and his wilds will disappear until the next chink of your armor is exposed.
I have included something here that I wrote and carry in my billfold. I also have it displayed in picture frame on the mantle. Gird you loins this will help mightily.
SAVE ME???? from what?..a car wreck or a drowning,ha nice try!
We all face uncertain and confused temptations of life when they become millstones around our necks. Captive thoughts affect the decisions and choices we make. Consequences that live on long after an about-face. So, just what do we do and what do we think and feel? Where do we go to avert these unintended consequences that snare us into mind slavery? After all, we do want to do the right thing; figure it all out for ourselves.
*TEMPTATIONS*
Call to me softly from where you are
I am lost in the land of many rivers
Talk to me in your quiet voice
it leads me through this forbidden land
Speak to me from your heart. I need
each symbol and word to help me read
the map of my own damaged human heart
With each step, one at a time, in any direction
the land of many rivers calls to me unbidden
Parts of me stay behind as I start down the path
there to follow the well worn way that this
wicked land has made so easy for me
I listen intently for you to call me quietly from
the whispers that is hidden in the rustle of willows
and oak trees that are strewn along it's banks
Quick, show me the way back to you for the water
here is cold and deep and smiling at me!
The Answer
Romans 7:14-20
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And If I do what I do not want to do I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.Sin is anything God would not approve of according to the Bible.
Jesus said come to me; all that are heavy laden, and the I will give you rest. He said be not afraid; *********************I have overcome the world.
If you always live even in the shadow of God; you will never be in the dark.
LordKnows
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I have no idea what it is that you are saying here (for the most part anyway). Forgive my ignorance.
