Loneliness and Discouragement
Have you ever felt lonely, discouraged, or downcast? Are you feeling this way now?
The holiday season can bring up many emotions for people. For some, it is a time of joy and celebration. For others, it can be a time of loneliness, discouragement, and downheartedness.
Recent research from “The Loneliness Epidemic”, written by behavioral scientist Susan Mettes, shows that 19% of Baby Boomers report feeling lonely for at least some of each day. For Generation X, this number rises to 33%. And for the Millennial Generation, it reaches a staggering 46%. At baseline people are feeling lonely and disconnected.
While we may feel loneliness, feel discouragement, and feel downcast, especially during the holiday, we are not alone. God is with us. There are others who are experiencing, and who understand, what we are going through, because they are going through it too. We are not alone.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God Promises: “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” (Isaiah 58:11).
If you are feeling lonely, discouraged, or downcast, hang in there and wait on the Lord. God’s promises are coming. God is with us. Our thirst will be quenched in the drought. We will be strengthened. We will flourish and be refreshed in the Lord.
May we experience God’s presence and the sure hope of his promises in our loneliness.
A Prayer for the Discouraged and Downcast: “O God, almighty and merciful, you heal the broken-hearted, and turn the sadness of the sorrowful to joy, let your fatherly goodness be upon all whom you have made. Remember in pity all those who are this day destitute, homeless, elderly, infirm, or forgotten. Bless the multitude of your poor. Lift up those who are cast down. Mightily befriend innocent sufferers, and sanctify to them the endurance of their wrongs. Cheer with hope all who are discouraged and downcast, and by your heavenly grace preserve from falling those whose poverty tempts them to sin. Though they be troubled on every side, suffer them not to be distressed; though they are perplexed, save them from despair. Grant this, O Lord, for the love of him who for our sakes became poor, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.” (#59., Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
