BY LARA GOVENDO

"How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!"
Psalms 139:17-18

"Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:20

As I type this, I’m questioning if I do actually believe that loneliness is a gift. How can something be a gift when it’s so… painful? Some of the most painful moments in my life have been when I was the loneliest. But there’s something magical that happens when we surrender EVERYTHING to God. Even the minuscule details of our lives, like our loneliness.

I’ve felt just about every loneliness there is to feel. Lonely in my illness. Lonely during the darkest seasons of depression. Lonely in romantic relationships, in friendships and family too. Lonely in not living a typical life. Lonely in being single and living alone. Lonely during the deepest heartaches and grieving seasons. Lonely in being misunderstood and left out. Lonely in the quiet battles I face that nobody knows about.

There is loneliness lurking around every corner we turn on the journey of our lives. Even though we’re in community, have wonderful family and friends, there are still lonely moments to be had. No human will ever truly understand the depths of our hearts. And that can feel pretty lonely when we’re going through trials and tribulations.

What matters, though, is what we do with our loneliness. We can choose to turn to distractions, addictions, busyness, the internet (social media, youtube, etc) – filling every waking moment with something. But none of these things take away the ache of loneliness.

BUT God does. Every time.

That still small voice spoke to me this week when I was feeling this and said: your lonely times are when you seek Me.
……………
Ok God. I hear you – I whisper.

And He was right. When I’m lonely in whatever circumstance it is, I get alone with God and take my loneliness to Him. He’s the only One that can fill that space of loneliness with complete wholeness. I can’t find the answer in other people, books, music, tv… because God IS the answer. He’s always with us, and never forsakes us (paraphrased from Deuteronomy 31:6).

And loneliness IS a gift because I’m reminded to seek Him.

When I bring my loneliness to Him, He reveals the root of it. In this sacred space with God, I’m able to heal on a soul level from whatever is bringing this feeling of loneliness. When we fully surrender our loneliness over to God, He truly does give us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

The pandemic has brought its own level of loneliness to everyone’s life in some capacity. I’m not negating the magnitude of this heaviness. But I can encourage you that when God calls us into loneliness, we are given the space and opportunity to become all that God created us to be apart from human influence and everything that’s distracting us.

It’s hard to drown out the noise of the world and get alone with God. But when we do, there is beautiful re-creation within us. After all, we are new creations in Christ, called to die to ourselves (give Him our loneliness) on the daily and follow Him.

​Thank you, God, for the gift of loneliness.

BY DONNA CHURCHHILL

“The Lord will go before you! The God of Israel will be your rear guard!” 
Isaiah 52:12
 
“I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” 
Revelation 1:11
 
He who begins, finishes. He who leads us on, follows behind to deal in love with our poor attempts. He gathers up the things that we have dropped, our fallen resolutions, our mistakes. He makes His blessed pardon to flow over our sins till they are utterly washed away. And He turns to fight the enemy, who would pursue after us, to destroy us from behind. He is first, and He is last! We need never fear!
 
In all things, He goes before us.
He paves the way.
He even lights the way.
He whispers, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”
We never walk alone.
We are never left to stumble and falter.
He is first.
 
I have a long walkway from my garage to my house and at night, without proper lighting, it can be pretty daunting. Especially because I know we have bears and all assorted creatures in the woods behind our house. Yikes!! But on the side of my garage there is a sensor light, so when I walk out of the garage, the light comes on. As I walk down the walkway, there is another light on the house that comes on at dusk and stays on till dawn. This light guides me down the walkway, but once I get past that light to the foot of my stairs, it is dark again. I must continue to the first step and as soon as my foot hits the bottom step, another sensor light comes on to guide me up the stairs. BUT, I have to take that first step. This is such an object lesson for me.
 
We are to take one step at a time and as our foot lifts to take the next step, He lights the way. We just need to trust that He will. Every time I walk down my walkway at night, I am trusting that my next step will light the next one and so on.
 
God does go before us, but we have to follow and we have to trust.
 
But even as He goes before us, He is also our rear guard. What comfort there is in this truth. We are not left defenseless either way!
 
As we walk through this life, there are so many things that we shed as we go, some good, some not so good. But they are not left haphazardly on the path. He goes behind us and takes care of all those things. He gathers them up and deals with them as He chooses. He gathers our sins up into His bosom and He remembers them no more. His mercy and grace follow us.
  
He brings up the rear.
He watches from behind.
He fights the enemy on our behalf.
He protects us from a “sneak attack.”
He watches our back.
He is last.

He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
 
What a comfort and a blessing to know that I have a God who not only goes before me and paves the way, but I also have a God who walks behind me to protect me in every way. He fights the battle both ways. I can trust Him to order my steps and direct my path. I can trust Him to be “round about” me.
 
“They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.”  Psalm 125:1, 2
 
“You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.”  Psalm 139:5 (NIV)