SERIES: Christmas Presence
LESSON 03
TITLE: God Is With Us in Our Loneliness
MAIN TEXT: 1 Kings 19:1-18
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Every mountain top experience must end. And so it does for Elijah. He hears about the Queen’s death threat against him, so he runs and hides. All the while God continues to take care of him. In the midst of his seclusion, he begins to doubt himself, his mission, his fellow Israelites, and even God. God called him out of the cave and sent a gushing wind, a terrifying earthquake, and a raging fire. God was “not in” those incredible displays of power. Rather, God’s presence could be heard/felt in the soft whisper (still, small voice; sometimes translated as silence). Then God gives him reassurance that there are many thousand of his countrymen who have not bent the knee to Baal.
We’re never as alone as we think we are.
Christ came to save the world. But it was sometimes a lonely existence. There were times he felt abandoned and betrayed. But he also sought out those who were considered “outcast” by society. He touched the leper, he had a conversation with the woman at the well, he invited himself over to the house of Zaccheus. Jesus told us of a God who, as a loving shepherd, leaves the ninety-nine to go after the ONE. Jesus even reminded his disciples that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age.
Jesus also practiced solitude. He took time alone to spend with God. There is a difference between loneliness and solitude. I think we have a loneliness epidemic because we don’t know how to live comfortably in solitude. We experience FOMO instead of JOMO. We may want to chase after the next big thing. We may want to be included in the big events that everyone is going to or doing. But we must remember, God is fully present in the soft whisper of solitude.
