Have you ever felt abandoned before?
I’m sure many of us have at one point in our lives - whether that’s physically, spiritually, emotionally, and so on.
Let me tell you a funny little story!
When I was a baby, (obviously I don’t remember this but this is what my family have told me) I was strapped in my car seat in the car and my family were driving home from a day out. I wasn’t very old, just a few weeks I believe. So they were driving me home, then pulled in to the garage, and then they went inside the house.
It wasn’t until everyone was sat down in the living room drinking their tea that they noticed something was missing...
“We’ve left the baby in the garage!”
So there I was, only a few weeks old, sat in the car in a garage on my own! I’m not a parent, but from this story alone I’m starting to realise that sleep deprivation among new parents is definitely a thing!
Now of course, as soon as they had noticed I was gone they collected me! But for that hour - I had been abandoned!!!
Like I said before, I can’t remember this in the slightest, and obviously ever since I was told this story it’s always been funny to me! But it got me thinking, this feeling of abandonment is really anything but funny in the real world.
It’s a horrible feeling.
Out of curiosity, I went online to look at some of the recent statistics around loneliness in the UK, and one of them was this:
“5% of people in Great Britain reported that they felt lonely “often” or “always” between 3 April and 3 May 2020, about the same proportion as pre-lockdown.”
(https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandlonelinessgreatbritain/3aprilto3may2020)
Now, 5% may not seem that much, but in other words, that 2.6 million adults. And that doesn’t even include out youth and children.
Loneliness is a huge issue in our town, country, and world!
But if you already know this, then let me remind you, and if you’ve never heard this before, please let me tell you - God doesn’t want you to be lonely. He is with you. He hasn’t left you. He will never abandon you.
There’s verse scattered all through the bible that help us in our loneliness. Just a couple of examples are these verses:
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
And I could go on and on with verses like these, and with stories in the bible of people who suffered the pain of loneliness and rejection.
So how do we overcome it in our own lives?
Well, we need to meet with God.
And this is so exciting - there’s so many ways to meet with God. You could meet with Him through prayer, through reading the bible, through worship... God will never ever leave you, or forsake you.
I also think that when I use the expression “meeting with God,” people think it has to be at a particular time and place, and yes those intimate moments with God are great and definitely vital in our walk with God, but God is with you at every moment of every day, not just when the bible is open.
As an analogy, I often compare this to my relationship with my husband. We live together, we see each other every day. We go out on dates, not just because we love food too much, but because we want to spend quality one on one time with each other. But we can’t do that all the time. That would be unrealistic.
But when we’re not spending one on one time together, we’re with each other in some way...
If we’re both at work, we’ll both drop a few texts to each other throughout the day.
If we’re both at church running the youth club, we’re not exactly spending quality, one on one time with each other, but he’ll smile at me from across the room, or he’ll help me set up the youth equipment to make my life easier.
And it’s like that with God. It’s unrealistic to sit and read your bible 24/7, because you have a life to live and work to go to and homework to finish and children to look after... but that doesn’t change the fact that He is always with you 24/7.
I can’t remember whose quote this is, but it really helped me in my walk with God:
“I never say 20 minute prayers, but I never go 20 minutes without praying.”
Wow!
And the more we begin to acknowledge God in our every day lives, the less lonely we’re going to feel, because we’ll know He is constantly with us.
We’re bound to be rejected and abandoned on by people on this earth, but God, He will never abandon you. No matter what.
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