- Joined
- Oct 26, 2007
- Messages
- 12,433
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. Isaiah 49:15 NKJV
The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” Ray Charles’s “Lonely Avenue,” and Lauren Daigle’s “You Say” express the universal experience of loneliness. Although men often find it difficult to admit, at some point everyone feels forgotten.
Sometimes loneliness results when people choose self-centered friends who can’t “sleep till they make someone stumble” (Proverbs 4:16). Wisdom warns that these “friends” intensify loneliness. Others begin to feel forgotten when they trade their relationship with God for religious traditions. Paul warned the Galatians about this: “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back?” (Galatians 4:9-10). He cautioned them that religion never feels the same as relationship.
If you are struggling with loneliness, maybe it’s time to find better friends and to start hanging out with the people least like you at church, people who are more concerned about another’s success and relationship with God than about their own religious piety.
Finally, whenever you feel people have forgotten you, remember God never does. His memory of you is permanent—for as He put it, “I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Prayer: Father, thank You for the unshakable love You demonstrated on the cross when You chiseled my name into Your hands.
The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” Ray Charles’s “Lonely Avenue,” and Lauren Daigle’s “You Say” express the universal experience of loneliness. Although men often find it difficult to admit, at some point everyone feels forgotten.
Sometimes loneliness results when people choose self-centered friends who can’t “sleep till they make someone stumble” (Proverbs 4:16). Wisdom warns that these “friends” intensify loneliness. Others begin to feel forgotten when they trade their relationship with God for religious traditions. Paul warned the Galatians about this: “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back?” (Galatians 4:9-10). He cautioned them that religion never feels the same as relationship.
If you are struggling with loneliness, maybe it’s time to find better friends and to start hanging out with the people least like you at church, people who are more concerned about another’s success and relationship with God than about their own religious piety.
Finally, whenever you feel people have forgotten you, remember God never does. His memory of you is permanent—for as He put it, “I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Prayer: Father, thank You for the unshakable love You demonstrated on the cross when You chiseled my name into Your hands.
