The following testimony appeared in the newsletter of the Crisis Pregnancy Support Centre in Nashville, Tennessee:

“I got pregnant when I was sixteen, and the only thing lonelier than being sixteen and pregnant is knowing you have to make an adoption plan for your baby. Loneliness gradually became a part of my life as my pregnancy progressed. In the beginning my friends still dropped by and sometimes I would still go out with them. Before long, however, my pregnancy became obvious, and I was always tired. They still wanted me to do things with them, but most of the time I just didn’t feel like it. I began to amuse myself by reading, watching TV, and thinking about the baby that was to come. This was the first stage of my loneliness when I learned to do everything alone. When watching TV and reading got old, I spent a lot of time crying in my room. I was alone and confused, and I knew I couldn’t keep my baby. As I decided on adoption, I thought my heart would break. The decision was made out of love for my baby, but it was the hardest decision I will ever make in my whole life. This was the second stage of my loneliness when I cried alone. The third stage of my loneliness was the shortest because this is where the Lord found me. My mother told me to trust in the Lord and He would give me the strength to do what I had to do. I began to spend a lot of time praying, and I found that I was no longer alone. I had a friend who was always there to listen. That friend was Jesus Christ, and He was the cure for all my loneliness.”

Pregnant 16-year olds are not the only lonely people in the world. For example:-

• Albert Einstein: It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
• Ernest Hemingway: I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into.
• Inger Stevens, television actress, who took her own life: Sometimes I get so lonely I could scream.
• Benito Mussolini: It seems my tragic destiny that in all the important moments of my life I find myself alone.

In recent years our society has been completely inundated by new communications technologies, equipment, and networks. So why do so many people feel disconnected … and lonely?? Because the answer to loneliness is not technology, but love! The Good News is:-

1 – God Himself loves lonely people.

• In the beginning God created us for intimacy and companionship with others.

1. Even before sin entered the world, He declared that “it is not good for human beings to be alone.”
2. That’s why so many people so often feel so empty inside.
3. But how then is Jesus Christ “the cure for all my loneliness” as the young woman from Nashville declared?

• Again: the answer to lonely heart is (personal) love.

1. And God is love!
2. See I John 4:8-10. “…God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”.
3. God didn’t just say he loved us. Real love is something you DO. God came to us — in the Person of His Son Jesus. And He “showed” His love by providing a sacrifice for our sins.

• How does God’s love (Jesus’ coming) solve our loneliness? See Ephesians 1:2-8.

2 – How God loves lonely people

He demonstrates this in five ways.

• He shows us His favour.

1. If you or I were irresistibly “lovable” — completely deserving of love — we probably wouldn’t be lonely, would we? We wouldn’t need love, because everyone (God included) would just naturally love us!
2. But God loves us in spite of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we’ve done. That’s precisely what “grace” is. Romans 5:8 …God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So here in verse 2 Paul begins his letter to the Christians of Ephesus with “grace” — God’s undeserved love and kindness. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
3. But God not only loves us when we don’t deserve it; He also lavishes blessings on us that we aren’t entitled to. “Verse 3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” We are so used to seeing life in strictly material (physical) terms, that it’s hard for us to conceive of a “blessing” that is not financial … or at least “tangible.” – “Every spiritual blessing” sounds like something elusive — or imaginary! – Maybe it would be some kind of warm feeling that lasts about as long as the warm sunshine on a mostly cloudy day! Not only that, but the verse says that God “blesses” us with these “spiritual blessings” … “in the heavenly realms”! – Maybe you would rather be blessed right here on earth!! – When Paul talks about “the heavenly realms,” he is not talking about some distant or future place. – He is talking about right here and right now: 1) = “the unseen world of spiritual reality.” 2) = the dimension of our present lives that is actually more real (and far more enduring) than the material world we are so aware of. – In this real spiritual world, we who are “in Christ” are the true billionaires! According to this verse God has blessed us not just with “some” or “several” or “many” spiritual blessings… – “but with “every spiritual blessing in Christ”!! – For example…?? 1) The first three chapters of Ephesians are crammed full of God’s specific blessings to us in Christ. 2) Paul is like a child on Christmas morning, eagerly and delightedly tearing the wrappings off one gift after another. 3) He begins with this:

• God adopts us into His family.

1. In the film “While You Were Sleeping” Lucy, a young adult “orphan” — through a rather bizarre sequence of events — finds a family…! That’s a picture of what we were: alone in the world, left on our own, trying hard not to feel lonely or sorry for ourselves… and having no reason to celebrate Christmas. The Bible says that before Jesus came, we were “without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12).
2. But God wanted (loved!) you and me! He came to us and took us in… to His own family circle! Verses 4-5: He “adopted” us “in love”…!
3. It was on His initiative: Verse 5: “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons, through Jesus Christ.” – To some people “predestination” seems like such a harsh, forbidding doctrine. – But look at what it actually means! 1) It is our destiny to be forever loved by God as part of His own family! 2) And this has nothing to do with whether or not we deserve it. He took the initiative, based entirely on His own eternal, personal, embracing love. – It was entirely His decision. – He deliberately “adopted” us “in accordance with his pleasure and will”! – To lonely people, we sometimes say: “To have a friend, be a friend.” 1) But especially when you feel all alone, it is hard to take the initiative! 2) God didn’t wait to see if we would come looking for Him; He came to us … and He invites us to come home with Him!

• He buys us our freedom.

1. Verse 7: “In him we have redemption through his blood….”
2. Not so long ago Christians in the West were outraged to learn about Sudanese Christians who were being captured as slaves by northern tribesmen. An international effort raised funds to “buy back” thousands out of slavery. Two problems: – More slaves were taken. – The “price” was driven up.
3. “Redemption” means Jesus paid to buy us out of captivity/slavery — and set us free. We were all slaves to begin with. And the price was already as high as it could go: – What He paid, was his own life’s blood…! – God chose to sacrifice “the One He loves” on a cross. 1) …so that you and I could escape the incarceration of our own guilt, 2) …and so that we could avoid the penalty of our rebellion against Him! Never doubt you are loved…!!

• He offers us His forgiveness.

1. Verse 7: “In him we have … the forgiveness of sins….”
2. There was an obstacle to our experiencing God’s love and “adoption” and freedom: our “SIN”…! But like the Prodigal Son’s dad, God took care of that at a single stroke: forgiveness. But although God is willing enough, forgiveness is not an easy thing for Him. Look what it cost Him…!
3. Some loneliness is due to physical separation… But much is the result of alienation…! God’s forgiveness is another way that His love answers our loneliness.

• He endows us with His fortune.

1. Verses 7-8: “(We have redemption…and forgiveness…) in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (8) that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”
2. What riches?? “In Christ” we are “lavished” with many wonderful and eternal treasures. But the greatest Treasure of all is Christ Himself! a. Ephesians 3:16-17. “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” b. Christ Himself (by His Spirit) will not only stay with us; He will live in us!! c. We will never be alone again!
3. We have only begun to experience all that that can mean! Ephesians 3:17-19. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – God will not only “be there” for you… – He wants to fill you with all that He has and is! Loneliness is such an “empty” feeling. And yet, our emptiness is the best condition in which to receive “all the fullness of God’s presence, forgiveness, blessing and love!

3 – The answer to our loneliness is God’s love

He took the initiative in coming to us (in love!) as a human being to forgive us, stay with us, and welcome us home! The deepest/truest loneliness is “existential”: I.e., the sense of being disconnected from (cut off from) God.

Writer Irma Levesque tells this story in “His Mysterious Ways”. Fleming H. Revell, 1988. Pages 72-74.

“I grew up in rural New Hampshire, the eldest daughter in a family of six children. In our chaotic household I found refuge in make-believe, often pretending that I was a beautiful girl named ‘Joan Bishop’ (Joan from Joan of Arc and Bishop from the English translation of my French last name). I never told anyone else about ‘Joan Bishop.’ It was a secret between God and me.

“Little girls grow up, though, and the day came when I bade good-bye to Joan Bishop…and to God. I moved to New York, got caught up in a fiercely competitive line of work, and gradually found my personal life getting lonelier and lonelier. In time I knew I wanted to return to God, but I hesitated. Would He welcome me back?

“One Sunday morning I could not stay away any longer. I went to a nearby church. I walked down the north aisle, past the old pews, each with its own waist-high door and tiny brass nameplates, relics from the 19th century when parishioners purchased their seats. I chose an empty pew and closed the door behind me. ‘Please, God,’ I began to pray, ‘I’m lonely and afraid. Are you here? Is this the place for me? Will these people all around take me in?’ I wanted God’s assurance that I should stay in that church, but no assurance seemed to come.

Suddenly I felt an overpowering urge to leave. Hastily gathering up my coat and scarf, I opened the pew door and stepped into the aisle. As I turned to shut the old door, my eyes were drawn to its tiny brass nameplate. The plate read: J. BISHOP.
“I returned to my seat. I was home again.”

God cared enough to make a place for in His family for lonely people like you and me.

• He loved us enough to forgive our sins and welcome us home in spite of them.
• He loves us so much that He wants to pour out all the blessings of wonderful presence on us.
• He did all this by sending His Son Jesus: For God loved the world THIS MUCH: enough to send His only Son Jesus to us — so that whoever will simply trust Him can live forever as His own dearly loved child! See John 3:16.

The BLESSING:

Ephesians 6:23-24. “Peace to the brothers (and sisters), and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”

Jude 1:21. “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

2 Corinthians 13:14. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Categories: Ephesians