It has been said that one of the most damaging experiences for a person is loneliness. We can classify loneliness as an emotion, because it can be totally based on feelings. For example, a person can be surrounded by a group of people and still feel alone. Although the person is not physically alone, he or she may feel separated from those nearby. Imagine being in solitary confinement. You are completely isolated from the general population and have no contact with other people. Darkness is all around and no one is able to come to your aid. As if it was not enough to be imprisoned against your will, now you have been stripped of all things that you deem valuable, almost to the point of being malnourished and becoming deranged. This is depression. It cannot be categorized by any single feeling. It is not delegated to any particular type of person. It can only described as a feeling of extreme loneliness or even solitary confinement.
In the twelfth chapter of Book of Acts of the Apostles the Apostle Peter was imprisoned for being a witness for Christ. This happened right after James (brother of John) was killed for the same reason. There was no logical reason behind the actions of those who headed the campaign to attack the church, other than to ‘please the people’. The story goes that as Peter was imprisoned and as the church prayed with intensity and faith for his rescue from a certain death, the Lord sent an angel to free him from bondage and bring him home again. But what happened in between?
Consider Peter’s predicament. His good friend had just been murdered, shocking the church. He was then dragged to death row to await his execution. He was all alone. Look at your own life experiences; you either have been or are now at the same place that Peter was - a victim of circumstances, hurting, and feeling all alone. But as we recall the story, we remember that Peter was not really on his own. The Lord sent an angel to facilitate his rescue. Think about it. Peter did nothing to aid his own escape, except follow directions. This communicates to us that 1. We are not really all alone and 2. We must depend completely on the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians 1:9, Paul tells how his circumstances caused him to lean totally on God. He says that it had gotten so bad that he and those with him “...expected to die…” How bad can it be for a person to expect to die? Pretty bad, right? But God masterfully weaves His sovereignty in the situation by delivering His people when all is seemingly lost. This means that it was in His plans for it to happen the way it happened all along. The key for Paul was to recognize that the ability to save was not in him, but rather in Christ.
In either case, whether it be Paul, who expected to die or Peter, who was scheduled to die, the theme is set as completely surrendering and leaning on Christ. Sometimes the circumstances that make us feel alone or imprisoned can be things like addiction, anxiety, or stress. What if I told you that God purposely allowed you to come across these things in order to teach you to depend on Him? As 1 Peter 1:6-7 reminds us, we are tried and refined by fire. Your addiction is not present in your life to kill you, but instead, by leaning on God completely and following His directions, it will refine your faith in Christ. Nothing is more comforting than the fact that as we walk this journey with God, we are securely guided by His word and His life. He is an all-sufficient God and He loves us enough to bare with us in our disobedience and thick-headed mistakes.
You may feel like you are in a place that is seemingly constructed of the bad decisions that you have made in life or you may feel like you are in a pit, dug by those who hope to kill you. God has something to say about your light and your life. He is ready and willing to rescue you from those things that seek your destruction. 1 John 5:14-15 guarantees that God hears our prayers and will respond by giving us the deliverance that we are looking for. Our only responsibility is to lean and depend completely on Jesus and follow His instruction. What is His instruction? “Take up your cross, follow Me, deny yourself…” (Matt 16:24, Mk 8:34, Luke 9:23)
