What Does the Bible Say About Loneliness?

I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

Jesus' promise the night before His death — He does not abandon us.

Yahweh himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed.

Moses' farewell — God goes ahead of us into every unknown.

For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

Jesus experienced isolation — He understands our loneliness from the inside.

'Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you! Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.'

Even if every human relationship fails, God cannot forget us.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.

Even the smallest gathering carries the promise of Christ's presence.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up.

Even the deepest human abandonment — God steps in.

Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.

God's presence comes with practical gifts — strength and help.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.

Jesus offers intimate fellowship — dining together, the symbol of deep friendship.

Yahweh is my shepherd; I shall lack nothing.

With the Shepherd, there is no want — including the want of companionship.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Jesus is the friend who never leaves — closer than any human bond.

'You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants... but I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.'

Jesus calls us friends — the most intimate category of relationship.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us — we are permanently held in God's love.

Yahweh God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.'

God himself named loneliness as the first problem — He takes it seriously.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

Believers belong to each other — the Church is God's answer to loneliness.

I look on my right hand, and see that there is no one who acknowledges me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul. I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.'

David admits total isolation — and finds God as his only refuge.

'Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'

Jesus' last promise — always. Not just when we feel it, but always.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

God's plan for loneliness includes community — we are called to carry each other.

All who believed were together, and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

The early church was a radical community — loneliness had no place in it.

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, 'I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.' So that with good courage we say, 'The Lord is my helper.'

God's promise of presence grounds our contentment and courage.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand.

God's thoughts toward us are countless — we are never far from His mind.