Where is God in lockdown and loneliness?

How to stay open to God when everything else is closed down.

Are you in lockdown at the moment?

Do you feel lonely from the lack of people contacting you?

Yes to both? Then join the club.

In my loneliness, I've found my temptation is to wallow around in misery and feel sorry for myself.

But God has used my loneliness to mature my faith – let me show you how He can mature yours too.

1. Remember, Jesus understands

In my loneliness and isolation, I've been considering what Jesus went through for me.

Jesus was rejected by his own people

In the Old Testament, God’s people suffered horribly from their enemies, and God promised to save his people.

His people were desperately longing to see the day of God’s visitation. But when God finally visited his people in the person of Christ, how did they treat Him?
Israel’s leaders called him a “glutton and a drunkard” (their way of insulting people back then) and the people in his own city tried to throw him down a cliff! (Read more in Luke 4:16-30).
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
He was despised and rejected by them.

Jesus was abandoned by his closest companions

His own family thought he was out of his mind.
His disciples fell asleep when he was praying for his life in the Garden of Gethsemane.
They deserted him when he was arrested.
One of his closest disciples denied knowing him, three times.
He was misunderstood by his own family, deserted and abandoned by his closest companions.

Jesus was forsaken while he was hanging on the cross:

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
God the Father, who had always been with him since eternity, had now forsaken him.
Jesus was truly all alone, deserted by his closest companions.
He was misunderstood, mistreated and murdered by his own people.

When you feel no one understands your loneliness – remember, Jesus understands.

Pray to God and bring all your anxieties to Him, because He cares for you.

2. Count your blessings

When I’m lonely, I’m tempted to play the victim: “Why doesn’t anyone care about me?”

But then I consider Christ – he cared so much about me that he gave up his life for me.

As Christians, we have ALL these spiritual blessings:

We are a chosen people
We are predestined to be sons of God
We are redeemed from our empty way of life
We are forgiven from our sins
We are saved from hell
We are given God’s own Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance

We have these great and wonderful blessings from a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in faithful love!

Jesus himself says: remember, I am with you always, to the end of the world.

The Lord Jesus is with you in your loneliness.

When I’m lonely I don’t feel blessed, but that’s the time I need to count my blessings and thank God for what he has given me.

And if you’re like me, you may not feel blessed either. That’s when you need to count your blessings too, and thank God for all that he has given you.

3. Do to others as you want them to do to you

If you are lonely, what do you want others to do for you?

If you ask me, I’d want others to make the effort to contact me and to care for me in my struggles.

Think of what your answer would be…

Jesus would say: Then go do likewise.

So out of obedience of Christ, I started calling my friends (both old and new), asking them how they are going in lockdown and asking how I can pray for them.

How about if you’re like me, and some of your friendships have gone stale and neither of you have talked in a long time?

That’d be awkward to initiate the contact…. But remember, God himself initiated the relationship he has with you, even when you were still his enemy (another thing to thank God for!).

So out of obedience to Christ, do to others as you want them to do to you:

In my loneliness, I would want others to _______________________

Therefore, out of obedience of Christ, I will _________________________

You can fill in the blanks.