Loneliness

On numerous occasions, including the night on which He was betrayed, Jesus withdrew from the crowds and the commotion to a solitude location, where He spent quiet time in prayer with His heavenly Father.

As you well know, solitude can help you clear your mind, engage in beneficial self-reflection, and recharge your batteries. More importantly, it also gives you a perfect opportunity to study God’s Word and offer back to Him your prayers.

But be careful, for solitude is also one of the devil’s most effective tools in chipping away at your faith. It is always his aim to isolate you from the one true God and His means of grace, to cut you off from family and friends, and to work feelings of loneliness and worthlessness in you. In Psalm 102, the psalmist laments how his sin has isolated him and left him feeling lonely, forgotten, worthless. In fact, he compares himself to “a lonely sparrow on the housetop.” Have you ever felt like a lonely sparrow on the housetop?

It is no surprise that you often times feel cut off from the world around you. The world, after all, marches to the beat of a different drummer than Christians.

But sometimes that isolation hits closer to home. Sin divides and separates. The unkind words you have spoken, the selfish interests you have pursued, the anger and resentment you have harbored, the forgiveness you have withheld, the frustration that eats away at you, the worry that consumes you—each of these wells up and builds walls and cuts you off from the very people God has placed in your path to love and care for. Simply put, sin drives a wedge between husband and wife, between parent and child, between friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

And last, but not least, is the isolation that comes from thinking that you have been cut off from God. More than anything else, Satan wants you to believe that God is against you. So he dredges up past sins and throws them in your face. He works up guilt and shame inside of you. He even uses trial and tribulation, sickness and disease, financial hardship and relationship problems to tempt you into believing that God has turned His back on you. He makes your heavy burden feel even heavier, even as he leads you into despair, gloom, and hopelessness.

To such a person, it often seems as if God has hidden His face, as if God has turned away His ear, as if God has refused to help and intervene. Some of you have been there yourself. A couple of you might be there right now. Most of you know at least one person who has been or is there.

What does such isolation and despair and loneliness look like? The psalmist gives us a glimpse with these words:

For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.
I am like a desert owl of the wilderness,
like an owl of the waste places;
I lie awake;
I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
All the day my enemies taunt me;
those who deride me use my name for a curse.
For I eat ashes like bread
and mingle tears with my drink,
because of Your indignation and anger;
for You have taken me up and thrown me down.
My days are like an evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.

Such are the thoughts of the lonely sparrow on the housetop. The Christian who bears a heavy cross. You, when you sink down into that deep, dark pit of despair.

But shining into your deep, dark pit of despair is the Light of the world who gave His life for you on the cross. He is the Light no darkness can overcome. And yet, to win your salvation, He too had to be isolated, cut off, forsaken. As Isaiah writes, He was despised and rejected by men. He bore your griefs and carried your sorrows. He was pierced for your transgressions and crushed for your iniquities. Yes, He was forsaken by His heavenly Father so that you would never be cut off, isolated, or forsaken. You see, Christ went to the cross and took upon Himself God’s righteous judgment against sin. All so that you may now have a share in His forgiveness and His life. So that you may know again the joy of His salvation. So that you may be upheld with a willing spirit.

This Lent, your Lord again reminds you that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He points you to His cross and exclaims: This I did for you. I love you. I have taken away all that once separated you from My Father. So know for certain that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). I am with you always—in Word and Sacrament—even to the end of the age.

Will there be days when you feel like that lonely sparrow on the rooftop? Yes. But remember, although the birds of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, your heavenly Father feeds them. “Fear not,” says Jesus, for “you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31). Thus, when loneliness sets in, when sin weighs heavily on you, when it seems you have been cut off from family and friends, even from God, remember what the psalmist writes: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

Joy comes in the morning. Starting on Easter morning and continuing each and every morning until He comes again in glory. The author of Psalm 102 knows this as well. In fact, you need look no farther than the verbs he uses to see that God acts mercifully toward His people:

You will arise...
You have pity...
You build up...
You appear...
You regard...
You do not despise...
You look down...
You hear...
You set free...
You establish...

As you can see, even in your sorrow, even in your despair, even in your loneliness, you are never alone. For you have a God who loves you, a Savior who died for you, a Spirit who enlivens you, and a family of believers who is here for you to pray for you, to strengthen you, to help you shoulder the burden. And that means that you are never alone, never isolated, never cut off.

So use a little solitude every now and then to clear your mind, engage in beneficial self-reflection, and recharge your batteries. More importantly, use some time alone to study God’s Word and offer back to Him your prayers. But most importantly, look daily to the cross. See your Savior’s arms flung wide to embrace you as a beloved child. Listen and take to heart His forgiving words. Partake of and find strength in His life-giving body and blood. And therein be assured that You are loved. Jesus’ death and resurrection is proof of that!

by Rev. Paul Mumme 

http://lambfood.blogspot.sg/2012/03/loneliness.html