Combating Loneliness

When one is taken to a better place or relocated or repositioned, one may feel lonely from the untwisted relationship God detangled one from. God never meant for us to be lonely which is why He assured us that in Matthew 28:20, "...And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world". I have recognised untwisted relationships and taken steps to untangle them. One of such relationships is with my husband, in the area of "making him my hit"; knowing that only God can fill my void has made me turn my focus on God who is able to make all grace abound and supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.

1 Corinthians 13, that lovey dovey chapter! Tongues, Interpretation, Faith, Prophecies… Yet love is the greatest. Why? You can’t love without giving your heart. You must put something in place with the understanding that the other person may have a block in that area. Love the person beyond the situation so that it does not become volatile. Allow them to use their OWN tools until they go into the ditch. Then, be ready to provide tools for them to get out of the ditch. Learn to speak the other person’s language and love them BEYOND themselves.

NOTE: YOU CANNOT LOVE WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD. God Has created all of us incomplete, inadequate, and in need of a huge shopping list full of ingredients that we cannot provide ourselves.

To combat loneliness we need to put to work the 5-step strategy proposed by Dr. Stanley: Recognise, Reconcile, Recall, Reach and Refocus. We must realise that other people cannot fill our void, only God can through godly relationships. Loneliness could be dangerous as this could move us towards the wrong crowd. In relationships, we should look out for whom to offer our love to as our relationship with God positions us to overcome loneliness.

While Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he neither felt alone nor lonely, because his belief was not adulterated and his focus did not stray away from his calling of nurturing the garden and naming the animals. It was God that saw through the fact that he was relating with creations that were not his kind. His focus drew in the woman only after he was woken from unconsciousness. His relationship with her at that point was God-ordered which led him to affirm that this is a creation that was drawn from him. Eve may have experienced loneliness despite entering into marriage, this avoidance behaviour, occurs from misbelief. It is the same kind that leads us to believe that it is socially unacceptable at a certain age to be single or without a mate, yet many enter into marriage and continue to experience loneliness.

But instead of recruiting the woman as an ally in his calling, he let her stray into loneliness which led her to seek a relationship that created the window through which their relationship became twisted by the misbelief that God who put the tree in their care and full glare did not want them to be wise and the unbelief that God did not want them to experience the full import of their freedom of choice as humans.

Mrs. Omolola Omoteso-Famuyiwa is a minister who is passionate about sharing God's words for the healing of others.