Loneliness

This week I heard a sermon by John DelHousaye. He had a unique perspective on God’s possible purpose for loneliness in our lives. He shared that God sometimes takes people away from us so that we can get alone with Him and be more intimate with Him. He suggested that our solitude, or departing to have a time with God, strengthens our souls against temptation, shrinks our fleshly pride, and promotes humility. DelHousaye said that the soul grows best when the flesh is vulnerable. One way we can make our flesh vulnerable is by fasting.  Sometimes we need to starve the flesh so that we can grow in our souls.

Jesus fasted.

“Is not life more than food?” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”  Matthew 4:4

Jesus feasted (on SCRIPTURE!!!) He ate every word that came from the mouth of God. Jesus had scripture memorized and internalized.

If our goal is to have our soul right with God, we must realize that anything that the world has to offer pales in comparison to being in His will.

I believe that God gives us friends as one of His good gifts. But we are always to keep our friendships in perspective. We must keep Jesus first. We need to seek Him and find Him because we are seeking Him with all of our hearts. We should be able to have friendships and walk with God faithfully. Whenever we make a friendship into an idol, we should not be surprised if God removes the friend from our lives (physically or just emotionally). God is serious about having our hearts. He is serious about being jealous for our wholehearted devotion.

Nothing, no nothing, should separate us from his love. Not any spouse, friend, family member, needy neighbor, or any other great cause. Or anything the world could offer; power, possessions, pleasure. Nothing should come between us in our love relationship with our Heavenly Father. And if it does, we will sense that we have moved away from Him because we have set our hearts’ desire somewhere else. And He loves us too much to leave us distracted, seeking after fleeting loves. He breaks through our illusion of fulfilling love, and shows us how He alone can satisfy. He shows us that we need to enjoy every relationship and worldly thing in its proper subordination to our supreme love of Christ.

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