Alone, but not Lonely

Sometimes it’s best to be alone. Advice comes from everyone from popular authors to television talk-show hosts. Well-meaning friends propose insights. Educated professionals offer counsel. But the bottom line has to come from you and that can come much easier in the stillness of solitude than in the noise of company. In his famous sermon, “Payday Someday” Dr. R.G. Lee described the Old Testament prophet Elijah as, “God’s preacher, often alone, but never lonely.” The discipline of early morning aloneness in the life of Jesus is described as “in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35). Paul Tillich, a German-American philosopher and theologian, widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, wrote: “Language… has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.” So find some glorious place, some quiet, out-of-the-way location, to be alone with God. It will be time well spent, decreasing your lonely days, and filling every day with more meaning.

Join me this week in remembering the following global concerns:
• Pray for International Baptist Churches (churches who worship in English in non-English-speaking countries) who are without pastors in Argentina, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, and Tanzania.
• Continue to pray for Lori in Mali who has not yet completely recovered from malaria.
• Pray for Kathy in Australia as she adjusts to having a defibrillator installed in her chest to keep her heart from rising to an unsafe level.
• Join missionaries and others as they pray for Europe – http://prayeurope.com/