When You Feel Alone

Have you ever felt like you were going through something alone? You didn’t feel like anyone understood?

We have felt this way at some point in our lives.

There are even times when we wonder if even God is with us during the dark times we walk through.

There are many examples in the Bible of people who felt alone but learned otherwise.

• Elijah: After his victory on Mount Carmel, Elijah fled from Jezebel, felt he was the only faithful person left, and sat alone in a cave, wishing to die.
• David: Despite being king, David described himself as "lonely and afflicted" while fleeing enemies (Psalm 25:16) and was betrayed by his own son, Absalom.
• Job: While surrounded by comforters who misunderstood him, Job felt alone in his suffering and felt God was not answering his cries (Job 30:20).
• Jesus: Experienced the deepest isolation—40 days in the desert (temptation), in the Garden of Gethsemane (loneliness in prayer), and crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
• Moses: Felt isolated while fleeing to the desert and leading a complaining nation.
• Jeremiah: Known as the "weeping prophet," he sat alone because of the intensity of God's message (Jeremiah 15:17).
• Hagar: Wandered alone in the wilderness of Beersheba, feeling abandoned (Genesis 21:14).
• Paul: Suffered loneliness in his ministry, particularly when he was abandoned during his trials.

The important thing to note about all of these people is that didn’t have a cheering section or praise team getting them through it. They didn’t have friends posting praying hands in their Facebook comments.

With God you have the majority.

Romans 8:31 tells us that “…if God is for us, who can be against us.”

Being a friend of God is more powerful and effective than 100 people who offer their “thoughts and prayers”. While some might be sincere, no one is in the fire with you in the same way that God is. 

We may feel alone but we are not.

"When you feel alone, May the stars remind you how God lightens up the darkest moments."

Encouragement during Crisis

This week at a moment when I needed encouraging words I got this: 

If it have a start it will have an end, stay strong and keep pushing.

It set me back a bit because I don’t want this current situation to end badly. I’m not sure these words were as comforting as they were meant to be. I have come to the conclusion that I just need to survive this without a need for comforting words.

People are more excited to pray for a need when it is fresh and new but if it lingers and there is no miracle people get bored. Unfortunately when it affects you directly, you have to push through it every day whether the miracle comes or not.

God can deliver regardless.

There is a story in the Old Testament where David’s own men turned on him and wanted to stone him when things were looking bad.

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:6)

David proactively drew strength from his relationship with God, recalling past victories and seeking divine guidance. David did not wait for encouragement but immediately sought God through prayer.

When can’t always rely on encouragement from others or expect others to have magical words of comfort. It is our personal responsibility to maintain our spiritual resilience to preserve even when surrounded by crisis.

Tortured by the "What ifs"

I often torture my thoughts with countless “what ifs” that go through my head.  I am one that will overthink anything and everything.  I will rehearse conversations in my head which may or may not happen. It’s a curse.  

The what ifs can ruin your peace. I pray but then my mind still asks the what if question.  

What if God doesn’t answer my prayer?

What if it gets worse instead of getting better?

I spend way too much time trying to figure everything out. It stresses me out. I guess you could say that I stress myself out. 

I have a lot of what ifs going through my head right now in my life. The worst case scenarios are the what ifs that cloud my mind.  My world is chaotic because I ultimately know that I have absolutely no control over what happens.  

I’m sure that I irritate God with my overthinking and attempts to figure things out with my what ifs.  I admit that I have a problem. I need help.  I need to get better at just letting go and accept whatever happens.  It’s hard for me to do that. 

There is a Bible verse that tells us to “cast your cares” but I don’t really know how to do that.  I haven’t put that into much practice.  How can I just simply let my what ifs go and accept what happens?  God is in control regardless of my attempts to overthink it.  

My soul needs rest.  I can’t carry all of this on my shoulders right now. I have to let it go.  There is no way I can be prepared for every scenario in my life.  I need only to live right now and deal with the now and not think about what may happen later.  

The act of casting our cares means that we have to intentionally transfer the responsibility of our what ifs on Christ through prayer and meditation.  We have to allow ourselves to release these things and stop dwelling on them. Doing this is an active decision on our part.  If you are like me you may try and fail but the important thing is to keep trying and practice letting go.  

I don’t like feeling out of control and worried about what might happen.  If I don’t learn to handle this better I am going to burn out and be a total wreck.  I don’t need to wait until that happens to decide that I need to do something about it. 

So if you are an overthinker like me, join me in the practice of casting our cares instead of trying to keep them on ourselves.