Breaking the Chains of Loneliness: Day 3

The sounds of celebration and revelry rang in stark contrast to the dull feeling of isolation growing large and heavy in my chest. While men and women laughed and swayed in time to the strains of music,  I pasted on an obligatory smile and engaged in meaningless conversation–hoping nobody would notice the discomfort in my voice.

I’d waited impatiently to be part of the gathering–to belong to these people. But as soon as I arrived, I understood. The longing was mine alone.
Needing a few moments for reflection, I slipped away from the crowd unnoticed.
Sometimes loneliness is felt more in the crowd.
The words flitted through my mind and I felt the weight they carried wedge deep into the tissue of old, expertly hidden wound. I am not important enough to be loved. The love I’d believed for too long.
This time, though, I captured those pain-inducing, soul-infesting words and replaced them with truth. God put his love on the line for me by offering his Son in sacrificial death while I was of no use whatever to him. (Romans 5:8 MSG). 
Jesus loved me–and he still does. And, Friend, Jesus loves you!
If you are the lonely one in the midst of celebration, then celebrate Christ’s love for you. Reject lies for truth. Allow for emotion, but invite God’s word to cleanse the internal, festering places so you might experience Him more fully.
You were of such value that you were to die for, dear one.
Day 3-Breaking the Chains of Loneliness
Loneliness thrives when we feed the lies that grow it.  If you are chained to loneliness by the belief that you are unworthy of being loved, then please read and study some of the following scriptures. Replace the falsehood with non-fiction.
“I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
 Expect love, love, and more love! (Jeremiah 31:3)
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture…