alone | Thoughts About God

When Life is Not a Christmas Card

Devotionals — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 08:03:51 +0000

In our homes with lights aglow, stockings hung with care and cookies baking in the oven, our lives can look like a Christmas card. But sometimes it looks like something else. It can look harsher, colder, and even very lonely. Sometimes, Christmas can be hard. It doesn’t look like a Christmas card, or a happily ending Christmas movie.

What do we do when life is hard and we don’t know what to do?

Hold tight to our faith and keep our trust in God.

Sometimes, there are those things we can never fix and things that we can never change. Sometimes, there are circumstances and trials we’ll never understand, those things we’ll never know the reason why. Sometimes, we face situations that will test our faith and test our trust in God.

Faith is trusting that God is there
And knowing He is always in control.
Faith is staying close to Him
No matter what comes your way,
And believing He will meet your every need.

Faith is knowing that He loves you
And will never leave you or forsake you.
Faith is believing that in all things
He has a purpose and a plan.

Faith is knowing
You don’t have to understand it all
To keep your trust in Him.

Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

By Kathy Cheek
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

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Never Alone

Devotionals — Sat, 29 Nov 2025 08:03:33 +0000

“I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8

As a single woman, I have a lot of freedom. But with freedom comes occasional loneliness. Many of my friends and co-workers are married. They go home to their husband and kids. The weekend is filled with activities and family time.

Though I am happy with my life and content with my situation, sometimes I wish I had a person to share life with on a daily basis.

The longing for companionship is part of being human. God created us to need other people. But, primarily, He made us to need Him. God wants to fulfill our need for companionship. He is always with us. He is there to guide us in making decisions. He is there to teach us and show us His love through our circumstances.

Since Jesus is not physically present with us, we can easily forget that He is there. As we go about our day and feel frustrated, excited or nervous, we crave the chance to share those experiences with someone. Sometimes a flesh-and-bone friend is there. But we need to remember that God is there too. His Spirit lives in every believer. Closer than a best friend, He is there to listen and show us His love in the middle of our circumstances. If we pay attention, we can be aware of His presence and experience His companionship through every part of our day. We will find His friendship to be unshakable.

Lord, thank You for being my friend and constant companion. Please show Yourself in every situation I go through. Amen.

Thought: Keep in mind throughout the day that you are not alone. God is there. Set an alarm on your phone, tape a reminder on your desk, or write a message on your hand: “God is with you. He is at your right hand.”

By Debbie West
used by permission

The post Never Alone appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Loneliness

Devotionals — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 09:01:16 +0000

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” Hebrews 13:5

Webster’s dictionary defines loneliness as,

“being without company; cut off from others; not frequented by human beings; sad from being alone; producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation.”

Have you ever felt lonely? Loneliness has many causes: The death of a loved one, divorce or separation, a broken engagement, a career loss or change, a move from one city or country to another. Leaving what is comfortable and familiar and moving into the unknown can be a lonely experience.

Someone once said that loneliness is not simply a matter of feeling alone, but rather the feeling that no one cares what happens to you. Most of us have felt lonely sometime in our lifetime. Feelings of rejection and abandonment are common. Even Jesus felt lonely. We need to know that someone cares about what happens to us.

What can we do to help ourselves when we feel lonely, and how can we help others?

1. Realize that Jesus also was lonely, so He knows how you feel. Talk to Him about how you feel. (Isaiah 41: 8–10)

2. Read your Bible every day. You will receive comfort and affirmation.

3. Know that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. He is always there.
(Hebrews 13:5)

4. Talk to a friend about how you feel.

If you are feeling lonely today, I also encourage you to read Facing Loneliness, by J. Oswald Sanders. It offers some excellent advice and insights.

Father, we feel so lonely at times. We need You to envelope us with Your love and attention. Thank You that You promised to meet our every need. Help us to be alert to befriend those who are lonely. Amen.

By Katherine Kehler
Used by Permission

Emptiness

Thoughts_About_God — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 08:01:06 +0000

I hate feeling empty.

Emptiness leaves me feeling hopeless, worn out, used up, exhausted and alone.

In Ruth 1:20-21 (NLV) Naomi says, “Don’t call me Naomi. . . Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty.”

We are given only a glimpse of the heartache and sorrow that brought Naomi to the point of such emptiness and despair. What must it have been like for her to travel home to her native land empty? Did her heart break a little more with each step she took? What pain she must have experienced as she traveled farther and farther away from the family she buried. Naomi feels used up, spit out and with nothing left to give emotionally, mentally, physically or spiritually.

What has left you feeling empty?

I experienced a time of intense emptiness after the break-up of a close friend. I didn’t want the friendship to end and I worked with everything I had in me to hold on to the last remaining remnants of our relationship but it slipped through my fingers like sand and I was left with a gnawing emptiness that wouldn’t go away; a pain in my gut that never seemed to lessen.

At the risk of being redundant, let me just say that emptiness leaves us empty.

But without the emptiness how can we be filled?

Think about it, if we’re already full, how can God fill us?

What if emptiness is a good thing?

What if it is part of God’s plan you, for me?

When we are empty of our self; our arrogance, our own dreams, our thoughtlessness – than God is able to fill us with Him.

For me, the loneliness and pain I experienced drove me to my knees and created a space for God to fill. The emptiness allowed me to see God in a way I had never seen Him before. It brought my heart into a place of surrender.

Our faith as believers is anchored in emptiness. The empty tomb is the cornerstone of our faith. We serve a risen Savior, who died and left the tomb of death, never to return!

Then the angel spoke . . . “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead . . .” Matthew 18:5 (NLV)

We have a lot of things in this world that cause us to become empty – empty bank accounts, wayward children, broken relationships, the death of a loved one, regret and on and on . . .

I want to encourage you to embrace the emptiness . . . and allow God to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Remember, it is only through our emptiness that we can be filled!

by Kristi Huseby
Used by Permission

We are filled with the Holy Spirit by faith alone. However, true prayer is one way of expressing your faith. The following is a suggested prayer:

“Dear Father, I need You. I acknowledge that I have been directing my own life and that, as a result, I have sinned against You. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I now thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit.”