let’s pray…

would you pray in your heart right now a prayer that can help relieve the aching in your heart.  you may have a great job and you may be married with children.  but you still can be lonely.  would you say,

JESUS CHRIST, help me to recognize your presence.  FATHER, help me to realize that YOU’re here with me and that with YOU in my life i’m never ultimately alone.  help me to tune into YOU and fellowship with YOU.  JESUS CHRIST, come into my life and make YOUrself real to me.  help me to utilize my time, to make the most of the loneliness that i feel, to be a better person, not a bitter person.  LORD, help me to minimize the hurt, to play it down and to pray to YOU.  LORD, help me to emphasize others’ needs, rechannel blocked love, to focus on those who need my love. 

ben ferguson says many CHRISTians suffer with loneliness because they’re sitting instead of serving.  there are so many lonely people who need your care, CHRISTian.  that elderly person in the rest home, in that lonely apartment. that teenager who feels nobody understands.  that single adult who comes home to an empty house.  the woman whose husband has decided to move out.  the divorcee who’s not sure what to do.  the employee you work with who heads for the bar every night.  the widow who’s just buried her husband. 

if you decided to spend the rest of your life being a friend to people, you would make an invaluable investment of your life.  i challenge you to begin a ministry of friendship.  share JESUS with others.  invite somebody to your home.  invite somebody to church.  offer a listening ear.  take the initiative to meet people.  don’t build walls.  build bridges.  build bridges to other people. 

heavenly FATHER, i thank YOU for YOUr word.  i thank YOU that even a person as great as paul, a spiritual giant, experienced feelings that we all experience – that of loneliness.  it comes from the changes of life that we experience, from the separation we feel from others, from the opposition we feel – sometimes all alone and even rejected.  i thank YOU from his life we learn not to just have a pity party, but how to turn things over to you.  in JESUS’ name we pray.  amen.

just a thought from the front porch…