The Truth Behind Seasons of Loneliness

These words are being written from my heart to the one who has/does feel just as empty on the inside as I have felt so many times. 

I’ve written on the topic of loneliness many times throughout my life, but I somehow find myself experiencing it all over again.

And the more I come back to these feelings, thoughts, and so-called seasons, the less lonely they feel. I used to think this was because I have experienced these feelings and seasons in my life so many times that some how my heart has become a little calloused to them, but then I began to wonder if maybe God is beginning to show me a little bit of truth behind these seasons that we call lonely in ways that I have never understood before. 

God tends to do that. He is so patient with us when we don’t learn things the way we should have the first time. It may seem kind of unlike God, because our mindset is so often on comfort and goodness and love, and when God desires to grow us it’s hard to see any of those things the way He does. 

I started teaching this fall. And I’ve learned a few things about God while doing so. When I’m with a student who is struggling to understand the concept of something I explain it and have them repeat it to me. If they still don’t understand, I explain it again or in a different way in order for them to understand it better. I rarely give them the pleasure and ease of simply knowing the answer without understanding the process behind it. Not because I enjoy doing so, but because I desire to see them grow.

I’ve seen this same thing to be true in my relationship with God. He teaches me over and over again, because I don’t fully understand or take the time to understand the lessons He is teaching me the first time. And since He desires to make much of me He takes the time to do so. I so often just want answers. I want to understand. I just want the “why” behind it all without actually having to experience the pain and humility behind the process of learning.

Yet every time I do something happens in my heart because I allow God to happen in my life.

When we allow God to be the Teacher, and when we take the humble position of the student a whole new meaning and understanding behind the heart of God becomes so inevitably clear.

I could give you a list of reasons why my heart should be feeling empty and lonely, but I would rather share why I am not struggling as much as I feel like I should be when every reasonable explanation should be pointed towards the season of life God has me in. It should be one where I accept the pity party life has handed me, but instead it has looked a lot more like accepting the purpose filled passion God has given me

God’s heart is not to suppress our hearts, but rather for our hearts to surrender to His heart.

So as I surrender to sharing these words that have been rooted in my heart for some time now I hope we can discover a little more about how loneliness might be more than a season of discouragement.

I’ve begun to realize that seasons of loneliness aren’t really seasons of loneliness, they are simply seasons. And we’ve given them the title when our lives aren’t quite filled with the people or things we want; the things or people that once gave us past fulfillment or enjoyment. 

It is more of a mindset and a state of heart that we coverup as something else in order for the most reasonable explanation for the echoing silence in our lives to distract us from the promises of Jesus and the purpose He has for us during times like these. 

So our season may not be lonely, but our hearts may be. And while we may not be able to change our circumstances, we can certainly allow God to change our hearts. 

We all know the feeling of loneliness that echoes through our hearts from time to time. But how do we conquer this feeling? Simple. 

We let God be God. 

And when we give God our lives He fully satisfies and fulfills. All it takes is learning the art of surrendering our desires to God’s desires for us.

God has been changing my mindset & heartbeat behind so many things in life.

One of them being when I find myself in these so-called ‘seasons of loneliness’ it is not because God is trying to place me in a suppressing position, but rather a set apart one.

And it does not make me any better or worse; it simply shifts my mindset to the realization that God does have a purpose for my life when all odds may seem against it.

And when God sets us apart for a set purpose it usually includes the taking away of many things in order for the including of more intentional, well-meaning things in our lives.

And by that, I don’t mean God doesn’t want us to cultivate and grow the friendships or relationships in our lives, but that He wants us to cultivate the right friendships and relationships in our lives in the right time- His time.

He sets us apart in order to use us more fully for His glory, and other times He sets us apart to deepen our relationship with Him in order for every other relationship in our lives to be where they need to be.

So I want to share every reason why God has reminded me during this season that He does not place us in these positions because we are indifferent or unloved or any other unreasonable excuse the enemy may use to fill our minds, but simply because God is working in our lives to enrich and deepen the value of it in ways that could never be done before. 

God has been filling my heart with passion for the life right in front of me rather than the one I wish I had, and I’m not sure I can explain it all because I have yet to understand it. Other than the abundance of being in His presence has certainly filled every other area of my life with His abundant goodness. 

Because I’ve learned when we surrender our everything to God; everything becomes good, because God is good. 

So, I’ll end our heart to heart with this: God desires to give us an abundant life, and sometimes it looks a little funny and we question it over a cup of coffee in a cafe all by ourselves, but I promise there is more to it than the title we place over these kind of seasons in our lives. There is purpose and passion and detailed planning behind the moments we wish were different. And it’s often these “different” moments that make the biggest difference in our lives. Let’s not be so quick to disregard them, but let’s make room for them. They may seem a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but then again, that’s where every good thing begins. When we take our discomfort to the One who can give comfort. When we become a little less dependent upon everything, and a little more dependent upon the God of everything. When God becomes our everything.

Love and Blessings, 

           Moriah grace