Anyone who knows that they are born again can tell you that they are never really alone. We are part of God’s family. We are sons and daughters of the Almighty. He is our Father, and we are in constant relationship with Him.
We can speak to God any time. We can hear from Him though His Holy Spirit, who is always with us. We have His Word that speaks to us. In most nations, unless the Church is banned, we have access to local churches where we can meet up with other believers.
Is there an answer to loneliness?
What about those who have never met Jesus, and, therefore, have never been introduced to the Father God? Are they in a place of potential ongoing loneliness? Can they find God despite their situation?
The answer is in, one sense, yes they can be alone without God, because loneliness is a real state, and it affects many people. Being lonely is a sad place for anyone, but there is good news for all of us.
There is another sense in which we are never lonely even if we have not yet met Jesus. Let me show you something from scripture that may help you understand if you’ve never heard this before.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:8-9
The context here is how we can be saved. The question being asked is whether we have to go to heaven first, or go into the depths of the grave, or send someone to heaven or the grave to plead on our behalf before we can be saved and made part of God’s family.
The answer is none of these things, but something more wonderful and really simple to understand.
The reply gets to the heart of the matter for us, because the Word tells us that the answer to relationship with God is the Word, and, in another sense, our words when in agreement with His Word.
On our lips
That word is on our lips. That is how close God is to us. He is a word away. He is on our lips and in our heart. When the good news, say this very message you are reading, is preached, the Holy Spirit draws near to us and begins to prompt us in our heart to respond.
And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
John 16:8-11
He is the Helper. He has come to help us understand the Word, and respond to the Word. He is present with us when the Word of God is preached. He comes to dwell with us when we accept the Word and receive Jesus as Lord.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:15-19
So in this sense the Holy Spirit is near us when the good news is revealed to us. God is as close to us as our own words. We can receive Him or reject Him, but He is there with us. Whether we accept His free offer of eternal life is entirely up to us.
Sometimes we simply want to be alone with our thoughts and comfortable in our own space for a period of time, or separate off to be with God for a while, but that is a different state to loneliness, which can be depressing for many. But we can see that we never really have to be alone.
Believers have a promise from Jesus that he will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb.13:5b). He is ever present in our lives to assist us, to help us, and to champion us. The time to receive Him as Lord and Saviour is always Today, for this is the day of salvation.
Loneliness is a terrible thing. People of faith know that we are not truly alone and find comfort in knowing that God is with us. Every person has the opportunity to end the famine of loneliness by accepting Jesus as Lord.
He is as close as your words, and as near as your heart.
