(COPIED FROM OPEN AIR MISSION TRACK)

In 1996 the world famous band ‘The beatles’ wrote a number one song called ‘Eleanor Rigby’. The song is all about the loneliness and the chorus asks two questions:

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

All the loney people, where do they belong?

It is generally thought that there are a growing number of people today who are suffering from the awful experience of loneliness. It sis perhaps ironic tht we have access to so much social media, which enables people to have friends galore, and yet actually seeing people face to face and relating to each other in a personal way is happening less and less.

Perhaps you yourself when you go home, it is to an empty house. Maybe you, at least a pet to keep you company. Perhaps you listen to the radio or watch your fave TV program but other than that you spend much of your time without the company of others. In fact, you can be with other people and yet still feel lonely. If you do live alone, it may well be because you have lost a loved one through separation, divorce or bereavement. If you are now a widow or widower, your home may seem very empty and it is painful at times to the there. how very hard it can be that you no longer have your life’s partner to talk to, share or confide in.Even young people suffer from loneliness. If you are on of them it may be because you are not close to your parents or you just find it difficult to form friendships with others. Perhaps you have moved away from home to a large city either study at university or to start work. Everything there is unfamiliar including life being so fast paced, and it can be hard to develop real friendships.
Loneliness can be a terrible thing and isolation cn lead to deep depression and worse still, even suicide. Sometimes we can be so down that we persuade ourselves that even God wouldn’t either have time for or be interested in someone like us. we might even say, “Anyway, what would He know about being lonely? God doesn’t know how I feel”. it might come as a surprise to realise that he actually knows exactly how you feel. when God walked this earth in the person of Jesus Christ, he experienced just what it was to suffer in all kinds of ways, including loneliness. The old testament prophet Isaiah asaid of Hm, “He despised abd rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him”. Isaiah 53:3
Jesus had a band of followers called the disciples who spent three years going with Him everywhere but on the evening when jesus was arrested he told them that he as about to experience loneliness very sharply indeed. He predicted that every they were all going to abandon Him, “The hours is now coming, and yes has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own and leave Me alone” (John 16:32a). Just a few hours later in a garden called Gethsemane that’s exactly what happened.
However, Jesus said something else as well on that occasion which would have given Him enormous comfort, “And yet I am not alone, because the father is with Me (John 16:32b). Humanly speaking Jesus would be alone, but that only told half the story and it can be just half the story for you too. Spiritually speaking Jesus had the wonderful company of His Father in Heaven.
Do you realize that you can have that company too? You were actually created to have a relationship with God; to know Him in a real way and to have a HIs presence with you. this is something that is even more important than the most special of human relationships.
Sadly, we often live our lives either ignoring God or choosing to stay right away from Him. This is so sad, when we consider that the main purpose of Jesus coming into the world was to provide us to be reunited with our Maker. You see, we have something inside of us called sin which causes us to be cut off from God. The Old Testament says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you.” (Isaiah 59:2).
Sin makes us dirty in God’s sight and because He is so perfectly holy and pure He couldn’t come near us. However, Jesus came on a mission to do something about that. He came, as a human being to take all our sin upon Himself, and did so while He was suffering and dying on the cross. Part of His suffering included a terrible depth of loneliness He had never known before. God the Father withdrew from His Son during the hours when He took our sin upon Himself. Such was the anguish Jesus felt that at one point, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? (Mark 15:34).
It is an incredible thought that Jesus was rejected so that we don’t have to be. The proof that jesus really did accomplished His mission of salvation on our behalf was that on the third day after His death and burial, He rose again from the dead. All you need to do by way of response is to sincerely own up to your sin, humbly ask Jesus to forgive you and wholeheartedly believe in Him as your personal Saviour. The New Testament says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). What an amazing blessing to be able to call God “My Heavenly Father”. This is the great privilege and joy that all Christians have. It is to know that even if we are alone, we are not really alone, because God is with us.
You may be facing a very lonely time right now, but if you have God as your Father you can know His presence wit you and that will make a difference. Being part of God’s family will also be a joy to you. It means you will have brothers and sisters that you never even knew about.

God’s promise to His people is, “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).