Loneliness is a Parched Land

Loneliness… Anger… Depression… Guilt… Worry…

Can you honestly claim to be totally without even one of these? Then skip this article and go on to the others. But in case you are still reading this one, you need to know what loneliness is. Simply put, loneliness is sin. Sin is something that you know you should not feel or experience or do, but you are caught in its trap anyway. It is knowing the right thing to do but not doing it. It is something that goes against God’s laws that you know instinctively in your conscience. Such as right now you know that there is something very good and right about coming together, being committed to others, having a life together with others. Your conscience also tells you how abnormal it is to be lonely, to live only for yourself, your own interests, ambitions, and desires.

So what is the root cause of loneliness? A wall. A wall that an enemy has set between you and God. The wall has been knocked down if you belong to Him who knocked down the walls. The U.S. government has tried to knock down the walls their own way — desegregation tactics, public school busing, pressures against using certain words or phrases which are characteristic of prejudiced thinking. These walls are not the problem behind basic separation between people of different races, ages, temperaments, and education. The government can knock down these external walls all day long — yet still, loneliness prevails all the more. The real walls are in the human heart. Loneliness is a heart problem, and that problem, really, is separation from God. As long as one is separated from God, he is lonely, desperately lonely.

What must I do to be saved from this hell of loneliness?

You can move into a commune to escape from your loneliness, but the commune must have in residence there the One who knocks down walls. Loneliness still prevails in this place all the more if He is not living in the hearts of those who make up this commune. (Commune is an empty word without Him.)

What must I do to be saved from this hell of loneliness? I am lonely; I need a man… I am lonely; I need a woman… I am lonely; I need a commune… But when a man has a woman, or a woman has a man, or they live in a commune just for the sake of physical contact — loneliness persists. Even if a man and woman join together in marriage, without God in it, loneliness persists.

Loneliness is universal.

Loneliness is the central and inevitable fact of the human problem.

The sidewalk, college campus, cafeteria, and the subway is jammed with lots of people. No, it’s not the number of people, as all are lonely. The party can be jumping with lonely people. No, it’s not the number of people in one place doing the same thing together that dispels loneliness. Loneliness is a reaction to life. The lonely person seldom stops to ask, “Hey, why do I feel so lonely?”

“It’s not my fault! So why ask the question? It is obviously the fault of the other people. They are unfriendly, unkind, and selfish,” He says to himself.

Loneliness is universal. Loneliness is the central and inevitable fact of the human problem. What in the world then is the answer? How can we knock down the real walls that separate us?

We have been born with those barriers, grown up with them, and worked within them. Rarely, even when drunk on booze or high on caffeine do those barriers go away. We wake up in a box and then drive in a box to go to work in a box every day, and return home to our box at night, and when we die we are put in another box. So where is the solution? When and where will it ever be on earth?

When you see those who believe, living together, dwelling in unity, it becomes apparent that living a self-centered, solitary, lonely life is contrary to the true character of God, which is love.

Loneliness is the demonstration of the unbelief of the whole world. Loneliness cannot dwell in the light of love. Yahshua (Jesus)* sets us free from loneliness, for He breaks down the walls that have divided men and kept them in the parched land of the lonely. Now, through faith in Yahshua, we have come into God’s holy habitation, the community where we find a real home with real people — God’s people. God’s character brings people together in love and care for one another. This love is the demonstration that God is in the midst of His people.

Whenever the lost and lonely ones start becoming a part of the solution to loneliness, then we can truly say, “Loneliness? What’s that?”

The solution is that God has wiped out loneliness, totally done away with it. God has taken loneliness away from those who are His. How has He done this? The solution is simple. He brings the lonely into families — real families — families who care about each other. I mean really care. Families that are committed to you. Families that are not isolated, but instead dwell together as a people. Those who want to be His people will no longer be lonely, that is, if they really want to be His people. It’s a good way to know if you really want to belong to Him or not.

So why are you still lonely? You are living in sin — a life of loneliness.

You must come out of sin and into the solution. We need each other, but we need each other’s God-oriented selves. We need each other under the shelter of His house, communities of families who are full of loving-kindness.

It really doesn’t take a commune or a marriage to break loneliness. It doesn’t take lots of people together in one place like a university campus, living in a dormitory, to break loneliness. It really takes just one person to break it — YOU.

It takes you deciding to accept the solution and leave your lonely life behind forever. “A father to the fatherless and a defender to widows is God in His holy dwelling place. God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious [the lonely] dwell in a parched land” (Psalm 68:5-6). The cure for loneliness is forgiveness, and the life of love that results from being forgiven. It is found in the place where God dwells.

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