God Meets Our Needs

 

Life's challenges often isolate us and cause us to understand loneliness like we never experienced it before now. We feel abandoned, neglected and even ignored.

Our friends surround us during the funeral of our loved one; but then they forget to call, come over to visit, invite us to their home or on an outing in the ensuing weeks.

This loneliness causes us to look inward and we find a void there as well. God seems distant and we either panic or get angry with Him for forsaking us.

There is no Biblical evidence that God ever leaves His children. We leave Him, but He never leaves or forsakes us, and He always stays closer to us than a brother (Hebrews 13:5; Proverbs 18:24).

We often develop expectations and requirements, which we imagine God fulfilling. We have our own timetable and we are devastated when God does not meet our demands.

We seek blessings, which He knows are not for our good at this time in our life. He has other plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but we often have no patience to wait on God's timing to meet our needs.

God knows everything about our life from beginning to end (Proverbs 5:21). He promises to meet all of our needs through His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19).

Rather than stewing in the juices of our loneliness, we can take up a hobby, join a civic organization or exercise at the local health club. Getting more involved with our church family is the best use of our unscheduled time.

Prayer:

Father God, teach us that rather than focusing on our desires, we can view the needs of others around us and pray about You using us to meet their needs. Allow Your Spirit to guide us to the exact person You want us to help. Otherwise, we may not be in Your will and we may thwart the plans You have for that person.

Open our eyes and allow us to meet new people, which we can invite to join us at our church or our local Bible study. Remind us to look for people sitting alone, so we can greet them and allow them to see Your peace and joy in us to bring them a smile to encourage their day.

Thought for the Day:

Sometimes we accuse God of not caring; however, hindsight always reveals the effort of God's Spirit behind the scenes, working out all things for our eventual good.

- Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 5:7

 

Loneliness or Aloneness

The Bible speaks of being alone in two different ways. One denotes loneliness and the other refers to living al-one with our Father God (John 16:32). We can experience both at the same time, or one without the other.

God realized that loneliness had an adverse effect on the human soul (Genesis 2:18). He created us for companionship. Have you ever tried to scratch an itch in the middle of your back? We need each other. 

Even in a crowd of people, we can suffer loneliness, because it is a state of mind, rather than a physical issue. It is a aching void deep within our soul.

Loneliness causes us to feel isolated, dejected, abandoned, unimportant, unloved and even hopeless. We want to hide under the covers, ignore our responsibilities and vegetate.

Loneliness affects us mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. We actually believe that no one cares about what happens to us, unless we realize that God continually cares for us (1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 55:22).

Aloneness is quite different than loneliness. We all need time to be alone. This helps us to get in touch with our inner self, to ascertain our needs, to get to the root of any negative emotions and to maintain our union with Christ (Colossians 1:27, 3:3-4; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 3:14).

In times of solitude, we recharge our psychological, physical and spiritual batteries to have the energy to continue to minister for the Lord as His Spirit directs (Ephesians 2:10).

Times of solitude refresh us and prepare us to hear from God each moment of the day (Psalm 95:7; Hebrews 3:7-8). Al-one times require quiet, private and peaceful surroundings.

We listen with our spiritual ears (Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9). The presence of God infiltrates our spirit, soul and body. We are one with God and enjoy His companionable silence (John 10:27-28).

Once we enter God's sanctuary within our spirit, we realize the futility of our temporal existence and begin to pursue eternal endeavors instead (Psalm 73). Al-one times help us to maintain a spiritual focus throughout our life.

Prayer:

Father God, our disheartened soul takes comfort in Your continual presence within. We meditate on Your Word and follow Your precepts each step of our life. Thank You for Your blessings and abundant provision of all of our needs.

We trust that You will continue to perfect us until Christ returns (Philippians 1:6). We have abundant assurance that You will keep all of Your promises to Your Saints (Romans 4:21). Teach us that loneliness is our choice. Remind us to spend al-one times with You, and we will never experience debilitating isolation, but restful solitude instead.

Thought for the Day:

As we traverse the moments of each day and face the issues of life, we function from our spirit, rather than our soul. This enables us to continually meditate on the goodness of God and the Truth of His Word, as we follow His Spirit's direction to accomplish His will.

Healing Relationships - Part 3

Any time that we give power over our self-worth to another person, rather than to God alone, we are making that person an idol in our life.

As we discover our healthy self-worth in Christ, based on knowing His Word and how He feels about us, then we can follow the Holy Spirit’s direction in forming safe relationships.

We will still experience negative feelings, such as hurt, fear, anger, loneliness, etc. These feelings are an integral part of life, and they come with the human experience.

It is impossible to love without opening our self up to be hurt. When we choose to love someone, we are giving him/her the power to love us and to look to us to be loved.

However, we can love without also giving them the power to hurt us or to allow their words and actions to cause us to feel insecure, angry or frightened.

When someone’s words or behavior trigger a negative reaction in us, this is a sign that something is very wrong. We can take that negative emotion to God and ask Him to reveal the origin of this sensitivity in us.

There may be an unresolved conflict from our past, which is still very much alive in our subconscious mind; or it may rise from some current situation that is causing this negative feeling. ( www.theophostic.com )

Once we submit to God’s healing, these slights and rejection no longer have the power to devastate us like they used to, because we have a spiritual perspective now.

God helps us to resolve our negative feelings, and we have peace within once again. At the same time, we can keep communication open between our self and others.

We can even mention, in a non-accusatory manner, that their behavior or words triggered a fearful or hurtful reaction in us. However, we do not have to attack them or cause a negative reaction in them, just because we are hurt.

Prayer:

Father God, it is so difficult to heal emotionally once we are in a caustic relationship. Our mate expects us to act as we always do. They feel threatened and confused as we start to change.

Remind us to share with them what we are learning and how we are changing, so they will not be surprised by any sudden transformation in our behavior. Create in both of us a clean heart that lives only to serve You (Psalm 51:10).

Thought for the Day:

The best motivation for mutual change in a relationship is to realize that change gives us a more intimate union.

For more information on our identity in Christ read:

http://fulfilledchristianlife.blogspot.com/2015/02/normal-0-our-identity-in-christ-alone.html