YOU need NEVER be lonely!

 

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel,
 which means ‘God is with us.’”  Matthew 1:23(NLT)

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.”  John 14:16-17 (Amp Bible)

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

The picture alongside these words is a typical stereotype of loneliness, an old man or an old lady BUT the fact is loneliness affects everybody and sadly in our modern times, according to statistics, it is now the experience of many of our younger population. It is being suggested, for example, that social networking has done away with the need for face to face relationships and loneliness has become a sad consequence? One recent headline I saw was ‘Loneliness is as harmful as smoking’???
I am living on an Island where I hear this word used time and time again. Whether it is through bereavement, fractured families or just plain singleness, perhaps because of all or any of these reasons people have come or remain on Tenerife believing that in this ‘holiday environment’ things will not be as bad as living back home! The fact is they are and in many cases they are worse? Could there be a link between that and the big problem with addiction to drink or drugs, or worse still a link perhaps to the tragic figures of suicides on the Island???
I don’t know it could be but this I do know loneliness is real and if you are experiencing it you will know the effect it has on every level of your life. Mother Teresa once said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”
Tell me are you feeling lonely today? Do you feel as if you are at the end of your tether? Do you feel rejected by family and friends, isolated by the community around you? Maybe you have lost your partner of many years just recently and realised that all of your life was lived as a couple, singleness is not an option? Maybe you’ve lost your job and with it all the friends at the office, factory? Whatever the reason you are in a bad place today and you want somebody to tell you it’s going to be all right..
So that’s just what I’m going to do….
OK I know this is not what you have come to expect from this page BUT I think this is so important to so many people that it needs to be heard and why not on this blog spot after all if the Church does not have an answer for this, who does??? And boy does the Church have the answer, well if by the word Church I mean the Church that believes and acts upon the Word of God and Cristianos Community Church does….

So are you faced with loneliness another day? I have great news for you, God is the answer!
Yes my grammar is correct. God has the answer it is Himself!
It was one of those great re-realisations that which I knew but discovered afresh.
During the Bible Study at the Church on Wednesday we were sharing our thoughts on the themes presented in the Prologue to John’s Gospel (Chapter 1:1-18). Among those themes and words was ‘Dwell’. It is found in verse 14. “And the Word (Jesus Christ) became flesh (human, real flesh) and dwelt among us (pitched His tent, moved into the neighbourhood, became one of us) ..” italics mine!
I began thinking about this amazing statement of Johns. My thoughts went back to the Old Testament to the time when King Solomon was dedicating the Temple in Jerusalem to the worship of God. The building which was to become the House of God, where the people could meet with Him…BUT Solomon in his prayer of dedication said this, “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!” 2 Chronicles 6:18
Wow! That God should indeed come to earth that’s amazing BUT then I think a bit more and I turn back to John’s Gospel and I read the words of ‘The Word who became flesh’ as He spoke to His disciples before He was to be crucified..He was returning to His father in heaven. He was leaving BUT he would NOT leave them alone..They would NOT be lonely WHY? How? “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.” John 14:16-17
The Holy Spirit that’s why, that’s how!! And so for those disciples and for every other believer ever since and yes, even today, God the Father has given us His Holy Spirit who will come and live within us (DWELL) forever so that we can understand and accept utterly, the promise of God as written in the Book of Hebrews “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5.
John again says, “That to all who did receive Him, (welcome Him, accept Him, open their lives to Him) who believed (into) His Name, He gave the right to become Children of God” John 1:12 and by that says the Apostle Paul, “you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father (you can say with a full heart, “Father, my Father”).” Romans 8:15

I write today having the spent the last week without my lovely wife Lorraine. She has been back in Ireland sorting out our personal things that we left behind when we moved back to Tenerife in January. I have missed her an awful lot and at night especially I get to wishing that she would be back soon..(next week thank God!) For some of you, I know this can never be again!
The point is however I have been on my own BUT I have not been lonely..Because I have the promise of God of His presence with me every moment of every day, His assurance that He will NEVER leave me and the joy of having His Spirit live right within me..Paul again, “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our own spirit, (touches our spirits and confirms, assuring us) that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16
This just blows me away! That the God of heaven, the Almighty, He not only came to earth to establish a relationship with me BUT that he should actually come and take up residence in me FOREVER. I will never, ever be alone again; I will always know ‘God is with me’

It cannot get more powerfully personal than that and that’s the great news I want to share with every lonely heart today. YOU do not need to know loneliness ever again..Because God wants to be in YOUR life too..believe Him, receive Him, He will come I promise.

Whoever, wherever YOU are today things do not have to be the way they are..God can transform YOUR life. We are happy to help you further if you would like to contact us on any of the ways shown in our Contact page..

Can I suggest to you that tomorrow pluck up the courage get out of your environment, visit an Evangelical Church in your town, you’ll find people that love you. Ask them for a Bible, if you haven’t got one already and start reading John’s Gospel find out for yourself that everything I am saying is true and can be true for you…God bless and……………………
Be encouraged YOU are not alone.