Scriptures: 2 Timothy 4:9-21, Proverbs 18:1, 24, Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 59:2
Twenty-two percent of all North Americans ate dinner alone last night. A Gallup poll recently stated that 3 out of 10 Americans are lonely. The reason why loneliness is so horrible is because God made us for relationships. He made us to need each other. When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, you would have thought he had every single thing he could possibly want. There was no stress, no deadlines, not a financial worry in his life, yet God said, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). In 2 Timothy 4 the greatest Christian who ever lived, the Apostle Paul, writing his last book, his last chapter, his last words, tells us how to overcome the problem of loneliness.
"One of the reasons why it is not good to be lonely is because it causes great psychological damage. It is estimated that 80% of the people who seek psychiatric help come primarily because of feelings associated with loneliness." --Dr. Merritt
Keywords: lonely, loneliness, isolation, New Testament, Paul, separation, fear, afraid
Pastors Edge provides Bible preachers and teachers with ready-to-use resources and materials based on the preaching of Dr. James Merritt, Senior Pastor at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, GA and host of the international broadcast ministry Touching Lives.