Topic: Loneliness Is Longing for Relationship with God[RICK WARREN Devotional 21 AUGUST2024]

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Loneliness Is Longing for Relationship with God

by Rick Warren — August 21, 2024
From Growing in the Seasons of Life

“God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 5:8 (NLT)

What you often call loneliness is really homesickness for God.

This is because you were made to have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship that God is dying to have with you. In fact, his Son did die so you could have it.

The Bible says, “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). 

Nothing is ever going to compensate for a close personal connection to God—no person, no experience, no drug, no success, no thing, no possession. Nothing is going to fill that aching hole in your heart that God created for himself. He wants you to know him.

How do you get to know God?

Open your life to Jesus Christ. Say, “Jesus Christ, I want to get to know you. I want to learn to love you the way you love me. You loved me even before I knew anything about you, even while I was still in rebellion against you.”

You were made for a relationship with God. Christianity is not a religion of fear, rules, regulations, and rituals; it’s a relationship where you talk to God all the time and he works in and through you.

That is the antidote to your deepest loneliness.

Join a church family. After God created Adam, he said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18 NIV). God created you to live in community with others. Find a spot where you can get involved.

Join a small group where other people get to know you and where you find the support network you need when you’re going through those tough times. Take a chance. Take a risk. Join a small group. 

Another way to overcome loneliness is to start serving. Every day we encounter a world full of lonely people who are wondering if anyone cares. That elderly person who hasn’t had a visit in two years. That teenager who is confused and wonders, “What am I going to do with my life?” That single adult who goes home every night to a lonely apartment. That widow who just buried her husband. That employee who heads for the bar every night after work because there’s nothing else to do. 

The world is full of people waiting to be loved. Stop saying, “I don’t have any friends!” and start saying, “God, who can you use me to minister to? What person can I show your love to?”

If all you do is commit yourself to being a friend to lonely people, you’ll live a significant life. That would be a valid, worthy life goal.

You will go through lonely times in your life, but you’ll never go through them alone if you have a close relationship with Jesus Christ.

Talk It Over

• If you’re lonely, what are some ways you can serve others?
• Ask God, “What person can I show your love to? How can I minister to them?”

Have you opened your life to Jesus?

If you don’t have relationship with Christ, I invite you to pray this prayer: “Dear Jesus, I don’t understand it all, but there’s a hole in my heart that I realize only you can fill. I recognize that I was made to be loved by you and to have a relationship with you. Today I want to step across the line and establish that relationship. I ask you to come into my life and my heart and replace my loneliness and my hurt with your love.

“You have promised that if I believe in you, everything I’ve ever done wrong will be forgiven, and you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day.

“I confess my sin, and I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. I trust you when you say salvation comes by grace, through faith, and not by anything I do.

“I want to become a part of your family, the church. I want to give my life to helping others who so desperately need your love and your help. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

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