Partners on the Path: Encouragement for Overcoming Loneliness

God created humanity to live in fellowship with Him, but also with one another. When we are missing connection and meaning in relationships, our lives may feel incomplete. Loneliness isn’t only about the absence of people in one’s life, but rather the absence of connection. This is why overcoming loneliness is so important.

It is possible to have others around us, to be in relationships that appear to thrive on the surface, yet feel woefully alone. It is our awareness of feeling distanced from God, others, and ourselves in what we identify as significant that produces feelings of loneliness. Adding more people isn’t necessarily the remedy, but a shift in perspective can place us on a more fulfilling path.

Our fragmented parts have value to Jesus, contrary to how the world esteems us when we are not quite at our best. It is in these cracked places, where the Lord binds Himself to us and we fuse to Him.

This is often when we don’t have all the people or support that we want to have (2 Corinthians 12:9). We can experience the oneness of mutual abiding that the Savior prayed about in Gethsemane, right before going to the Cross on our behalf.

He was fully aware that we would encounter many moments in our lives when we would feel the sting of loneliness. He was familiar, having gone to His inner circle, pleading for them to pray with Him in the garden and on the cross when He cried out in agony to His Father.

Knowing this, Jesus stood in the gap and made up the hedge, in His intercession for us, praying for the Father to keep us and make us one (Ezekiel 22:30; John 17:20-23). He intervened as the Worthy Lamb who was slain before the world ever came to be (Revelation 13:8).

When we consider the nature of our Savior, it removes the lonely burden of having to save ourselves. He came to offer a relationship that would fill and seal the broken places within us. Not only are we connected to Christ as Head of the Body of believers, but we also fit together in Him (Ephesians 4:16).

In overcoming loneliness, however, you have a role to play. Acknowledge your need for connection. God formed you with this need as part of His human expression of His image.

Welcoming this perspective beckons for the Lord to draw near. He desires to answer this void through a deep, abiding relationship where you encounter a love that won’t leave or forsake in the person of Jesus Christ. Recognize your need for God’s touch as well as that of others.

The Lord desires to anchor you in the kinds of family, friends, and faith connections that will mutually bless you and others in that circle. When you invite the Holy Spirit, He will lead and guide, as Jesus promised.

He graces you with what is essential for authentic connection and the discernment to recognize with whom, when, where, and how. God will give you the wisdom to navigate beliefs and behaviors that may be influencing your experience with loneliness (James 1:5). You can rest your hope and confidence in His willingness to remain with you through it all.

Next steps for overcoming loneliness

Expressing feelings of loneliness may seem challenging in the present age where many seem well-connected, liked, and friended on social platforms. You don’t have to gauge your worth based on media metrics. Neither do you need to internalize shame if you feel excluded from that.

Identify a professional counselor at Frisco Christian Counseling in Texas to gain the support you need to advance from here. God sees and knows where you feel lonely, and He has carved a path forward for you to travel with Him.