Never Alone

In Matthew 28:20 "I am with you always".

Spurgeon was writing in today's devotional "Morning and Evening"

It is good that there is One who is always the same, and who is always with us. It is good that there is one stable Rock amid the waves of the sea of life.

Have you ever been THAT lonely?
I mean so lonely that it physically hurt?

So alone that even in your thoughts there was nothing to take you anywhere else but right back to where you were.

Looking back on my life I can see places where there was indeed loneliness.  I see where I was trying anyway and everything to not be that way.  Of all things that I foolishly attempted...spending time with Jesus wasn't one of my solutions.

Oh people who are saved have Jesus all the time!  Partially true.  If they are walking with Him.  It's oh so very easy to go do your own thing and still be a Christian.  Been there done that.

If that were acceptable then why did Jesus in Luke 9:23 say:

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

In and of ourselves we will always do whatever is right in our own eyes.  Eventually this will lead to degrees of loneliness.  Feeling lost.  Wondering what to do. 

But Jesus said "I am with you always".

Think on that.  Think on that when you do what you do each day.
Think on that when someone walks by.
Think on that when you are watching a movie.
Think on that when you watch TV.
Think on that when someone cuts you off while you are driving.
Think on that while texting people.
Think on that when you are on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.
Think on that while you are at work.
Think on that anywhere you are...Jesus is there.

Think on that when there's nobody around you.  Nobody seems to be paying attention to you. 

The other day I shared that Scripture says Jesus is the door. Scripture also says that Temptation is right outside.  Scripture also says that Satan goes around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

When you think you are alone in your thoughts temptation can come knocking.

Did so-and-so say that about you?
Did you see how so-and-so looked at you?
They evidently don't really care about you. If they did they wouldn't be treating you like this!
Did you see how they ignored you!
You really must be bad. Something must really be wrong with you if they practically ran away from you at Church.
What did you do to them?  Think! You had to have done something!

The list goes on.  Thing is, I have heard most of those myself.

I used to be so ingrown, putting myself under a microscope over every encounter with people.  Their impressions of me meant more to me than anything.  Including what God thought of me.

I tell you it's a death circle.  There's no way not to end up more lonely with thinking like that.

Jesus loves me to much to leave me that way.  That's how that death spiral ends.

Jesus took me through many things to where I am now.  Because of me it's not perfect, but oh the difference!

I am with you always. 

I pray facing my chair that I set aside for Jesus.  In my heart and mind He sits across from me.  I reach out my hand to His when I talk with Him. 

His presence is known.  He visits me daily when I seek Him in the morning.   I have learned that it matters not what others think of me.  It's been a long hard lesson to learn.  Taking decades to get to this point.  It only matters what my Friend and Savior thinks of me.

Take up your cross daily and follow me.

Not only on Sunday morning or a Saturday night.  Not once a week.  Daily. 

There's a cure for loneliness.  It's to remember our Shepherd loves us too much to leave us where He found us.