7-day plan: Loneliness
God is not indifferent to those who are alone: the Bible speaks honestly about it, and keeps them company.
One passage a day, with a question to think it over. Your progress stays on this device, no account needed.
Day 1 · When you feel alone
David asks God to turn to him because he is alone and afflicted
Turn to me and show me favor, for I am alone and afflicted. The distresses of my heart have grown wide; from my straits bring me out. See my affliction and my suffering, and take away all my sins.
Psalms 25:16–18 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does this passage say about what God is like?
Day 2 · God does not leave you
David says his father and mother abandoned him, but YHWH will gather him in
For my father and my mother have abandoned me, but YHWH will gather me in.
Psalms 27:10 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Which word or phrase stays with you, and why?
Day 3 · The abandoned in the Bible
Hagar and her son, sent away into the wilderness, are heard by God
Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and also the child, and sent her away. She went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was used up, she threw the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Let me not see the death of the child.” And she sat opposite him, lifted up her voice, and wept. Elohim heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of Elohim called to Hagar from the heavens and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for Elohim has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.” Then Elohim opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave a drink to the boy.
Genesis 21:14–19 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Whom that seems to be pushed aside can you give time and attention today?
Day 4 · A place in God’s family
God is father to orphans and makes the solitary dwell in a home
Father of orphans and judge of widows is Elohim in his holy dwelling. Elohim makes the solitary dwell in a home; he brings out prisoners into prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Psalms 68:5–6 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does it invite you to do today, even something small?
Day 5 · When you feel alone
The psalmist feels like a lonely bird on the roof
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins. I keep watch, and I am like a bird alone on the roof.
Psalms 102:6–7 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Who could you share this with this week?
Day 6 · God does not leave you
Zion says God has forgotten her; he answers that he will not forget her, and has engraved her on his palms
And Zion said, “YHWH has abandoned me, and Adonai has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, on the palms of my hands I have engraved you; your walls are before me continually.
Isaiah 49:14–16 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What would you like to say to God after reading it?
Day 7 · The abandoned in the Bible
Elijah flees and asks to die; he feels he is the only one left
He saw this, and got up and went for his life; and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his young man there. But he himself went into the wilderness a day’s journey, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself to die, and said, “Enough now, YHWH! Take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” He lay down and slept under a broom tree; and there, an angel was touching him, and he said to him, “Get up, eat.” He looked, and there, at his head, was a cake baked on hot stones and a jug of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of YHWH came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up, eat, for the journey is too much for you.” He got up and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to the mountain of Elohim, Horeb. There he went into the cave and spent the night there. And the word of YHWH came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for YHWH, Elohim Tsevaot, for the sons of Israel have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; and I am left, I alone, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19:3–10 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Looking back over the week, what changed in how you see this topic?