Feeling Alone by Martin Wiles

“Hey Marty, I’m in a bind. Can you help me,” the voice on the phone echoed frantically. Mickey was a regular at the store I managed, but he hadn’t been in that day.

Mickey was re-tinning his house and had rented a lift to get materials from the ground to the roof but had accidentally slid from one section of the roof to another. He couldn’t get back to the lift, and the roof was too high for him to jump. Cars screamed by, but no one stopped to help him. He did the only thing he could do-call for assistance.

Elijah felt alone like Mickey. When God asked what he was doing in a cave, he replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty…. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (I Kings 19:10). But Elijah wasn’t alone. His counterpart Obadiah had hidden 100 believers in two caves, and God was about to materialize in a gentle whisper.

I’ve discovered feeling alone and being alone aren’t necessarily identical situations. I can feel alone in a crowd-and have. If I forget God’s lesson to Elijah, I can also feel alone-and shouldn’t, when by myself.

God is always with me, but I often expect his presence to manifest itself in miraculous forms as Elijah did. But God doesn’t have to appear in earthquakes, winds and fires for us to experience comfort. He can soothe my loneliness, anxieties, worries and fears just as powerfully through a gentle “I’m here.” When it seems everyone has forsaken you, remember God is no more than a whisper away.

Prayer: Thank You merciful Lord that You’re always near and ready to relieve our loneliness.

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