Author: marquitabp

Hey everybody!!! Disclaimer: I completely forgot to post this devotion and the next one…but a fresh one will be written for today as well… Love ya!

Recognizing the Spirit of Loneliness

“God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” Psalm 68:6

Hey everybody. I hope that this day is wonderful for you. Last night and the last few days actually, I have been thinking about loneliness. There are several definitions for loneliness; there are two in particular: 1) sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned and 2) the state of being alone in solitary isolation. I know that feeling all too well. To be quite honest, its more than a feeling, as the definition says it’s a state of mind, a spirit. I was lonely growing up, not because of not having a sister or friends. Actually, I have always been able to make friends without a problem. Loneliness is different from being alone or by yourself. For me it was the result of some event or tragedy in my life: 1) as a child following moving to different places and a new school, 2) primarily after experiencing and witnessing some difficult things as a child and teenager, 3) after I got sick in college, 4) when I moved back here and in dealing with all the things that have happened since. But last year I started identifying changes I wanted to make in myself, mainly how I looked at things and my attitude towards life. Loneliness is not having someone you feel you can talk to, and it is also not allowing yourself to reach out to others. You isolate yourself in nearly every way imaginable, of course hurting yourself all the more.

I chose the scripture above for several reasons. 1) There is a way out of loneliness—turning to God. If you give those feelings and that spirit over to God for Him to eliminate, He will do it. 2) He will, as the scripture says, put you in a family—be it your own family, the church, or other people that can help you recognize your wealth. You allow yourself to stay in “prison” to being lonely by not dealing with it and complaining about it. When I got sick, which I have to say, was the lowest point in my life, I could not deal with other people. Quite frankly, I hated to even get up and look in the mirror at myself. I had to couple that with going to class everyday as if things were normal. Everyday someone would say something in regards to how my face was looking (prednisone is the devil I tell you!) or me gaining weight and I would go break down. One day one of the side effects of the medicine had crushed my spirit so badly that I cried for the rest of the day. No one can understand that feeling if you have never been lonely; it seems that even God has left you. 3) But it’s only a lie to believe that God has left you alone to deal with the evils of life. Once I got back to a safe place emotionally, I was able to recognize that it was only the devil, aiming to break me and discourage me, to distort the fact that God was there witnessing what I was going through and carrying me through it. In Deuteronomy 31:6&8 Moses tells the Israelites then Joshua that God will never leave or forsake them. That does not only apply to them because it also applies to all of us through Christ’s provision. God will give you what you need to get through every situation. After praying that God help me get past it, I was able to relish in the joy of spending time with the people around me that cared about me. Once you give things to God who is much greater than yourself—and yes that is hard, I have to remember this everyday—you can allow Him to fix it and you. Truth be told, loneliness is only a warping and distortion of the truth—the truth that God is always there.

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

Resistance is Futile

“Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah 3:1-2

It is pointless to ignore God. You can be thrown all the doubt, opposition, discouragement and disbelief in the world but God’s voice will be louder. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the LORD with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” Doing that alone will get you past anything you or someone else can say to you. Isaiah 54:17 says this in Amplified: “But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.” Therefore condemn every voice that comes against what God has told you to do because we are to have faith and trust in God always; don’t allow yourself to be misguided by your own doubt and the fickle opinions of others. Because sometimes truthfully, other people’s responses could be out of jealousy, hatred, or just plain ignorance–I know for a fact because I have witnessed a lot of that lately!

I came to terms with this desire to serve God and just do whatever He asked of me shortly after my surgery. As I began to listen, things just seemed to happen that would serve to do everything but encourage what God wanted me to do. I doubted that what I was hearing was from God, and even found scriptures that I thought supported my decision to not go forward. But God kept calling, getting louder, sometimes even convicting me of what He wants from me. Two Sundays ago, I broke down and listened to the voice that told me to share my testimony and my calling. Even now, I have family (which I had been forewarned about) giving their opinion of what God has directed me to do. Rather than entertain their dissension—because they are only being used by the devil—I laugh because I wholeheartedly know that it is pointless for me to even give them a second thought. Even this past Sunday after hearing a sermon in which God was speaking directly to me, the only thing the devil kept playing in my mind was the part that served to act as a distraction and deterrent. But I resolved that I will listen to God and God alone and let Him lead instead of entertaining those that were not sent by Him. In the end, God will have his way whether you try to weasel out of it or not!

In the book of Jonah, we all know that Jonah openly and deliberately disobeyed God. At the opening of the story, God issues a decree similar to the one above and Jonah instantly flees in the opposite direction. (Jonah 1:1-3) God immediately set into place a series of events to cause Jonah to yield to God’s request: Jonah flees towards Tarshish on a ship and God causes the seas to be rough. Jonah admitted to the men on the ship that the cause of the storm was his fault for running from God; in turn he gets them to throw him over the ship and they turn to God and worship him. He is swallowed by the “great fish” and is kept there for 3 days until Jonah cries out to God. The fish throws him up on dry land and God again issues the above request. Jonah obeys, and then the people of Nineveh turn back to God and God forgives them.

Other prophets like Ezekiel experienced death threats, being outcast and ostracized by the people, and rejected altogether. But quite frankly, I’m more afraid of what God will do to get me to be obedient or what He can do if I do not…what about you???

“For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished.”
Hebrews 2:2