Finding hope when you’re lonely

Feel like nobody understands you? Jesus gets it. And God is with you.

The Bible talks about many men and women who experienced loneliness at least once in their lives.

For example, take a look at Psalm 142 which was written by David. Although it was composed a long time ago, the words reflect the way many people feel nowadays:

Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” –Psalm 142:4,5

When David felt alone, he chose to seek God and cry out to his best friend and refuge. And in this case, he was physically alone too because he wrote this psalm while inside a cave. And the truth is that sometimes, we also feel like we’re stuck in a cave.

Jesus understands your loneliness

Do you ever feel isolated, like you are in a place where no one is able to see you? It doesn’t mean that your friends can’t help you. It’s just that right now, no one seems to understand you.

But there’s someone who does.

Jesus understands you and your feelings of loneliness because He faced the same thing. His own friends – the disciples – didn’t help Him when He needed them most. In the darkest hour of His life, He was all by himself crying out to God. His friends weren’t praying with Him – they were “asleep, exhausted from sorrow” (Luke 22: 45).

God is with you in your loneliness

Alone in the cave, David continued sharing his sorrow with God:

I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who watch over my way –Psalm 142:2-3.

Like David, you can cry out to God. He wants to hear you.

Sometimes we complain because God seems very far. But He is not. He is willing to communicate with you and hear about about your good days and bad days – and whatever else you have to say.

Have you ever had a friend who really understood you? Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t have to speak because just by looking in your friend’s eyes, you knew that you both understood the same thing?

We can have these moments with God. All we need is to lift up our eyes towards Him.

The way in which you lift up your eyes to God can be by praying, reading the Bible or just praising him. These moments can help you move from a cave of loneliness and isolation to a place where you know that God understands you.

There is hope in your loneliness

Just like Jesus, you will have moments of loneliness. In my own struggles with solitude, I’ve had to deal with difficult emotions like disappointment and the fear of being forever alone. This pain has also taught me that God is here and that I am never truly alone. Other resources that have helped me find a new perspective on loneliness are:

Talking to someone about what I feel. When I was in college, students like myself were able to talk to a professional counsellor for free! Talking to someone who wouldn’t judge me made me feel less alone. Perhaps your school or university offers a similar service?
When I want to pray but feel alone, I use the Echo prayer app. It’s a cool way for me to share my prayer requests with others and I get a notification whenever a friend or family member prays for me. It’s a small thing that reminds me that I’m not alone! Do you think that prayer can change your perspective on loneliness?
Sometimes, I’ll reach out to a coworker by sending them an encouraging video through the Voke app. My perspective on loneliness changes when I take my eyes off myself and focus on encouraging a friend who may be going through the same thing. How can you uplift a friend today?

Focusing on God’s word, talking about my challenges, prayer and reaching out to others are not easy steps to take. But they remind me that I am loved. When you feel lonely, know that Christ experienced this too. He promises that he will never leave you nor forsake you, so you need not be lonely for long.

Check out the Voke App blog for more from Ana Luiza Menezes & Jessica Jean-Denis