You Are Never Alone 

-
Do you ever feel lonely? 

Recently, I was at an event full of people. Everyone else seemed gabby and was effortlessly making easy connections with others. I just felt out of sorts. Someone had said something to me earlier that day that hurt my feelings and knocked me off kilter. It was one of those “I would really like to be at home alone, in a bubble bath, eating something chocolate” kind of nights. But I had to go to this outing, so here I was — lonely.

I politely smiled my way through the evening and finally got to go home. As I crawled into bed that night, I asked Jesus, “Why am I letting some thoughtless comment someone made affect me like this?”

There was no deep explanation. There was no Bible verse that instantly popped into my head. There was no sudden rush of peace through my heart. There was only a very gentle reminder in the depths of my soul that Jesus loves me — insecurities and all.

Jesus loves me.

Simple but so powerfully profound, that one statement grounds me in the truth of who God says I am. Friends can’t make you feel accepted all the time. Accomplishments will never truly make you feel secure. Having lots of people around you does not mean you won’t ever feel lonely. And chocolate, while it is deliciously distracting, is just a little too temporary.

So I turn to the One who is Everlasting, Prince of Peace, and Immanuel — God with us.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel. — Isaiah 7:14

I draw close to Him so He can help me separate solid truth from shifting emotion.

And I’m reminded by the writer of the book of Hebrews that God says,

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. — Hebrews 13:5


More verses to explore:


Deuteronomy 31:6

Isaiah 9:6-7

Matthew 1:21-23
         
                                         * * *
Excerpt from the NIV Real-Life Devotional Bible for Women, with notes from the women of Proverbs 31 Ministry: Lysa Terkeurst, Karen Ehman, Renee Swope, and many more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You did it! Congratulations on finishing the Love Does Challenge

-
Image
You did it! Congratulations on finishing the Love Does Challenge! We pray that you've been inspired to go out and love others this month with an audacious love like Jesus!  Remember: love isn't something we do, it's someone we become as we start to live out God’s love for others on a daily basis. So if your journey still feels like a work-in-progress, and five days didn’t seem like long enough, we invite you to dive deeper into the Love Does experience by starting the five-week Bible study. This study is perfect for personal use or for small groups. Why not start a neighborhood group in your home and start loving on the people around you, right where you are? Invite your neighbors over for a Love Does video night! Or recommend the Love Does  study as your next church group experience!  Inside the Love Does study you’ll get: All 5 videos sessions with Bob Goff: 1) I’m With You; 2) Free to Fail; 3) Audacious Love; 4) Be Not Afraid; 5) Follow Me Discussion to...
Read more

Everyday Holy

-
Image
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  — Genesis 12:1-2   Sometimes when circumstances get too big or seem to be different from what I want, doubts start creeping in.  What if this isn’t the right thing? What if I heard God wrong? What if I’ve made a huge mistake? What if I’m totally screwing up my child and she ends up living in a van down by the river? I get scared. I realize this doesn’t make me different from anyone else. We all like to feel in control of every aspect of our lives, and it’s hard to surrender that control. It’s hard to say, “I trust You” — no matter what. One of the few constants in life is that things will always change. And I, like many others, hate change. It leaves me feeling unsettled, unsure, and insecure as I try to find new footing in different c...
Read more

Very Great in the Little Things

-
This God is our God. — Psalm 48:14 “God is great in great things, but very great in little things,” says Henry Dyer. A party stood on the Matterhorn admiring the sublimity of the scene, when a gentleman produced a pocket microscope and having caught a fly, placed it under the glass. He reminded us that the legs of the household fly in England are naked, then called attention to the legs of this little fly which were thickly covered with hair; thus showing that the same God who made the lofty Swiss mountain attended to the comfort of His tiniest creatures, even providing socks and mittens for the little fly whose home these mountains were. This God is our God! A doubting soul beheld a robin’s nest in a gigantic elm and heard a still small voice saying, “If God spent a hundred years in creating a tree like that for a bird, He will surely take care of you.” God is so interested that He takes us one by one and arranges for every detail of our life. To Him, there are no ...
Read more