Introduction
“My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.” Psalm 25:15-16 NIV
We live in an age of ultra-connectedness through devices and communication applications of all kinds, and yet reports of loneliness are steadily rising. Studies and statistics abound from countries around the world, enlightening us about the adverse effects of loneliness on our minds and bodies. But when we are feeling the pain of loneliness, these facts are no comfort, only confirmation that we are not alone in our loneliness.
The evil one sees our loneliness and tempts us to self-comfort with food, immorality, drugs, and unhealthy relationships. Satan promises connection and fulfillment in our lifestyle choices, but he lies. Connecting with others around our temptations, our job, our love of food, beer, wine, or fashion, groups us but leaves us only wanting more.
The world tells us that what we need is community, better friends, or professional therapy, but in the end, we find that people aren’t the answer. Friends and family can surround us while our lives still feel empty, and our hearts are filled with longing to connect.
What we really want and need is to be fully known and fully loved, not for how we look, what we can do, or what we have, but for ourselves. However, in this fallen world of broken people, we will not find this type of fulfillment.
In Psalm 68, David sings praise to God because God protects and pursues those who are alone in the world. God puts these lonely ones in families and brings them into freedom and joy. Oh, friend, there is a remedy for our loneliness, and it is in looking to Jesus!
When Jesus went to the cross, He entered our loneliness, took it upon Himself. He experienced the ultimate loneliness by enduring the agony of separation from His Father so that we could experience eternal union with Him. Whereas before, we were those who were “disconnected from the Head” (Colossians 2:19), and this produced loneliness, now, in Jesus Christ, our Head (1 Corinthians 11:3), we are united forever with God.
In this life, we will feel lonely at times, but it is only a temporary feeling and never an actual reality for believers (Hebrews 13:5-6). In Jesus, we are fully known and fully loved (1 John 3:1). We belong in our eternal family (Luke 10:20), and Jesus loves us with an everlasting love from which we can never be separated (Romans 8:38-39). God’s Holy Spirit fills and comforts us until we are face to face with our Beloved Jesus (John 14:26).
Illustration
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus cried out this verse from Psalm 22:1 when He was dying on the cross. We can feel the pain of His loneliness in these words.
Jesus Christ had come to this world, and the world did not recognize Him as their Creator but rejected Him (John 1:10-12). Jesus had come to His own, the Jewish nation, and they did not receive Him as the Messiah but instead hated Him. And at His last hour, Jesus’ disciples all ran away from Him. Finally, on the cross, His Father had forsaken Him. He was alone.
Talk about lonely! There He hung between heaven and earth, rejected by God and man, forsaken by all. He had said earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations, no one was with me” (Isaiah 63:3). Hanging on the cross, Jesus was utterly alone in the dark, alone as He bore the curse of the Law, alone as He suffered the wrath of God, alone as He paid for sin. No one was with Him. There was no relief for Him.
The reason He chose to enter this abject loneliness was to connect you forever with God; to unite the body and the Head. Jesus received rejection so that you could be accepted; He was forsaken so that you would be welcomed and embraced. He died lonely that you would forever live in the presence of God (2 Corinthians 4:14). Jesus rose victorious over loneliness. You have been raised with Him to a new life of fellowship with God and His people (1 John 1:7).
Application
Are you experiencing the pain of loneliness today? Are you feeling forgotten by friends, forsaken by the ones who are supposed to love you? Look to Jesus and see that He died on the cross and experienced utter loneliness in your place. He died alone so He could unite you with God and send His Spirit to always be with you. He rose to give you a new life of love and joy that is shared with people throughout time and around the world.
You are not alone, but you are loved! God has placed you in His family. Through His Son Jesus, God has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:12-14).
Embrace your feelings of loneliness as an invitation from Jesus to draw near to Him (James 4:8), to experience His love more deeply (Romans 5:1-8), to fellowship with Him in His sufferings (Philippians 3:10). Offer up the pain of your loneliness to Jesus and receive the comfort of His Spirit, for as you do, you will experience sweet intimacy with your Lord that will eclipse all your feelings of loneliness.
Question: How does looking to Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and His glorious resurrection bring relief from feelings of loneliness?
Judy writes, “Lord as I look to You I see all your Son has gone through for me, He has suffered so much loneliness in being separated from You and also all mankind as He died for all. How could I think to ever come close to what He suffered for me? Yet help me to look to Him and remember this when I feel out of sorts. Help me to look to You. Amen.“
Austin writes, “Jesus truly knows what loneliness is. he was separated from the father when He hung on the cross. That just tears me from the inside out. But He did it in love. knowing that going to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and take full force punishment would reconnect us with God. The ultimate act of love and mercy John 15:13“
Jen writes, “Jesus endured the ultimate loneliness on the cross so that I would never experience that type of loneliness. His sacrifice is love in action, fulfillment of the promises that God will never leave me nor forsake me. I am never alone!!!!“
Mike L. writes, “Imagine the union that Jesus had with God and the Holy Spirit, could three beings be closer than that!? I think not, yet Jesus willingly left that blessed union to come and set me free, free from sin, death, suffering, and loneliness. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, God His Father turned away from Him, how crushing that must have been, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to take on the sins of the entire world for all its existence, let alone just mine, yet Jesus willingly did that for me. Now I will be with Him eternally, so when I get lonely I will think upon such things and endure the time I have on this earth and look forward to eternity. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being my best friend, never leaving me nor forsaking me, but rather sending your blessed Holy Spirit to comfort me! What a beautiful Savior we have!!“
Reprinted by permission from the Looking to Jesus study at www.settingcaptivesfree.com. SCF exists to help men and women find freedom in Christ through the gospel.