Have you ever felt like you were lost and truly alone? On the inside, feeling like you were trapped in a deep dark abyss with no hope of escaping and without anyone to pull you up out of it? Have you ever felt like you needed something but didn’t know what it was, always looking for something to fill that emptiness you’ve been feeling on the inside? Always looking on the wrong places and in the wrong faces? There is a solution, my friends, there really is and I promise you this, there is real love waiting for you if you look in the right place.
Take a walk with me, hopefully you’ll see a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
When I was a young man in my early 20’s and through my mid-30’s, before I became a man of God, I found myself far from home and the people who really loved me. Far from the people I could count on to be there for me if I needed them, my family. They were just a phone call away but even so, the distance from home made me feel utterly alone at times.
I’ve always had family that loved me. I don’t know what life would be like without that support system and my heart aches for those who do not have family to lean on when things get bad. Without a loving family, I can see how people could become hardened and withdrawn, even angry at the world at times. But for me, being away from home and my family, far from what was familiar to me, even in a crowd, I still felt alone. There were times even back home, even around family, I felt lost and alone, even more so when “on the road” as we called it, the contract trail. After years of living out of a suitcase working all around the country, I finally went home and found a job that kept me home. But it wasn’t until I discovered Jesus that the emptiness I felt subsided.
One afternoon after playing a round of golf with a friend, I was asked a question that blew me away. My friend asked if I ever prayed for what I wanted and at that time in my life I hadn’t. I told him, “All I ever wanted was love.” All I ever wanted was a woman who would love me, just me, for who I am and not for what I have. It seemed like it was always about how much money I had and when the money was gone, so were they.
Real love is not about money or things and typically people will not find love in a bar or at some party where your thinking is skewed by alcohol. Love, my friends, is not a genie in a bottle or some magic lamp you rub to get your wish. I looked for love for years and for the most part, in all the wrong places, as the song goes, “Looking for Love” by Mr. Johnny Lee. The thing is, I never really asked the Lord for His opinion and I really didn’t know how.
With the guidance of my friend, I prayed a very simple prayer asking the Lord to give me a woman who would really love me for me. It was painless, there was no fanfare, no hype, just me talking to God asking Him for what I really wanted. He already knows what we want, He just wants us to talk with Him. It’s about relationship and communication is what makes for a good relationship. Over time I learned to not only to talk to God but to listen to Him and what’s more, I could actually hear Him when He spoke to me.
I asked Jesus into my heart shortly after that prayer and that emptiness I felt went away. What’s more, I met the lady I would wed and would spend the rest of life with.
I’m not empty anymore and I know this to be true, even people who are truly alone in this world can find the answers when they surrender to Jesus. I have seen it time and time again. Someone who has no family members have come to Christ and suddenly found they had an entire family, brothers and sisters that love them and treat them as if they are part of a family, complete with arguments and all that is part of being a family.
Listen, family is not only blood relations. Once you become part of the family of God, you have millions of new family members that love you. Know this though, God’s children are not perfect. We are all broken and for the most part, we are a mess. We are full of sin, and idiosyncrasies that make us even crazy at times. Think about it though, if we were perfect, why would we need Jesus? The truth is, there is no perfect family. There is no such thing as a perfect Christian either. We are all flawed and make mistakes just like anyone else. The difference is that people who truly love God will truly love people and when love is there, emptiness is not.
Our hope as people of God is that because of God’s love for us, many will come to salvation through Jesus Christ.
When you’re ready and want to know more, we as the family of God are here to welcome you into our family where you will be loved, irritated at times, but loved none the less. You will find that your life will change and as you grow in His love and you will see for yourself, Jesus makes all the difference!
I love you and am here for you.
Love Always,
Pastor Ron