Except for my cat, I live alone. For me, as for many others, life is busy; sometimes a bit too much, yet I often find myself fulfilled with little time to brood. Mostly I’m fine with my pace of life and its many online meetings, but when I finally stop, I can ache for another person to share life with or to hug. And it’s not just me. A recent survey reported that 26 percent of adults in the UK feel lonely all or some of the time. Loneliness is a modern epidemic.
God sees our need for connection, belonging and relationship. As we see expressed in the Psalms, He is an awesome and almighty God. When He “marched through the wilderness, the earth shook” (Psalm 68:7–8). He who “rides on the clouds” deserves our highest praise (v. 4). Yet He shows His greatness, unlike earthly rulers, primarily in how He relates to the least and lowest of His people. He is a “father to the fatherless, a defender of widows (v. 5); He “sets the lonely in families” ( v. 6).
Whether old or young, imprisoned physically or emotionally, we who feel lonely for any reason can trust that God cares passionately about our situation. In the deserts of our loneliness, He promises abundant showers of blessing to refresh the parched land of our lives (v. 9).
By Adrian Smith
REFLECT & PRAY
How can you reach out to God today and receive His love? How might you be His hands and feet to someone who is lonely?
Loving God, thank You that You see me and that You set the lonely in families.
Nearly forty times in the Old Testament the Hebrew word yāthom (the root word means “to be lonely”) is translated “fatherless,” as in Psalm 68:5. Though forgotten by others, the fatherless and widows aren’t overlooked by God. The social responsibility of God’s people included sensitivity to care for them. The first place in Scripture that explicitly points this out is Exodus 22:22–23 : “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” The words of James in the New Testament also reveal God’s heart for them: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). God’s people of any era are to be His caregiving agents to those on the margins.
Arthur Jackson
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