SEPTEMBER 15

Grace for the Lonely

Psalm 68:5-6

LONELINESS IS, PERHAPS, the most desolate word in the dictionary. It carries with it the heaviest weights the heart can carry. It plays no favorites; it ignores all rules of courtesy; it knows no barriers; it yields no mercy; it ignores the clock; it refuses all bargains. Money cannot make it leave. Travel doesn’t help either. Crowds only make it worse, and activity just drives it deeper.

The anguish of loneliness can be consuming. Ask the inmate in prison this evening . . . or the soldier who has been deployed thousands of miles at sea . . . or the divorcee in that tiny apartment . . . or one who has recently buried their life’s companion . . . or the couple whose arms ache for the child who was taken from them. God cares deeply for you if this is your experience.

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows —this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.

PSALM 68:5-6

My path has crossed many a broken heart —like the little Norwegian widow in Boston who now lives alone with only pictures of him whom God took from her . . . like the young nurse in 1967 who, after a shattered romance and broken engagement, went back to the Midwest to “start over” . . . like the alcoholic who wept on my desk one wintry morning after his wife and kids left him a bitter note, signed “Goodbye, forever” . . . like the husband beside a fresh grave on a windswept hill, who sobbed on my shoulder, “What now?” . . . like the disillusioned teenage girl, far away from home and heavy with child —wondering, “How can I face tomorrow?”

In the strangling grip of Golgotha, our Savior experienced the maximum impact of loneliness when He bore our sins and the Father turned away from Him. He will draw close to you when you call on Him. He cares. Deeply. He will never leave you alone. He remains faithful with plenty of grace for the lonely.

Linger alone no longer. Turn to Him.