You are not alone

Photo by dragonflaiii




You need a friend.



In fact, you need friends. In my life I need them too. As a pastor I can rationalize that "everyone" knows me, but who is truly my friend? I need friends. You need friends.


That's why I love God and my church. I can cultivate a great and close friendship with God and with others at church. I need to intentionally cultivate friendships. They don't emerge out-of-nowhere. So I need to start making friends with God and with other people.


How do you make friends? I discovered an old, but helpful and practical people-skill book written by Andrew Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people (Pocket Books, NY: 1990). He wrote it in 1937. But I have used it to help me and students learn how to make friends.


The six principles of getting people to like you I have paraphrased into action statements (summary on page 133 in my copy of the book):

• Be genuinely interested in the other person.


• Smile!


• Remember the name.


• Be a good listener.


• Talk about what the other person wants to talk about.


• Make the other person feel important.

I want close friendships like Jonathan and David had (read I Samuel 18:1-4). They were comrades, brothers.

As a follower of Christ, I often do not recall the truth that God is in me. In John 8:28-29, Jesus shares a truth with the crowds that floors me. God is with me, in fact, God is in me. I receive God the Holy Spirit when I trust in Christ alone for taking care of my sins--sins whose penalty is death and separation from God. Only by trusting in Jesus can I be given God the Holy Spirit.

Read Ephesians 1:13, "In Him , you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise." Or to say it another way, "It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of salvation), found yourselves home free--signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit." You are no longer alone. God Himself dwells in you as a Christ follower.

So even if you have no one physically near you. You are not alone. Even if you are in a crowd and you feel all alone, you are not alone. God is in you. He is your closest friend.

I need to rehearse this truth that God is not only with me, but also in me. Therefore I am not alone.

You are not alone, if you have God in your life. If you don't have God in your life, then you are truly alone.

It doesn't have to be that way. You can cultivate a close relationship with God. In fact, a relationship with God guarantees that you will never be alone. Read Joshua 1:5; Deuteronomy 31:8. You can never be alone again! Wow!

Likewise, you can initiate new relationships with others--relationships that reflect the words of Proverbs 18:24, "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but ther there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

I have that promise in the Bible to spur me on to cultivate great relationships. You can start great relationships. So that you are not alone. Start with God, then begin with other people. You can do it. Get on your knees and ask God into your life. Go out the door to greet and to meet people.