Loneliness is difficult to pinpoint in a person’s life. A man may be lonely in a crowd. He may be lonely with his dearest friend. He may experience loneliness when he is withdrawn from his intended place in society. A man may be lonely. He may find himself alone. In whatever way it could happen, anyone may have difficulty being in a state of loneliness. This chapter in first Kings tells us much about how a given person would experience loneliness.
In chapter 18 Elijah experienced one of the greatest emotional highs of his life. He challenged the priests who served in the worship of Baal. They were not able to rally their false god so that a sacrifice would be consumed. However, when it was Elijah’s turn, God answered his prayer by sending fire that consumed the sacrifice, consumed the wood, stones, dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. Afterwards, Elijah ordered the execution of these false priests. One would think that he celebrated his victory in behalf of God, but when the wicked Jezebel threatened him, he “went for his life.” One woman was more intimidating than all the priests and surrounding people that Elijah challenged.
In the same chapter, there was no lack of volunteers to pour water on the altar. It is characteristic of those who would resist the movement of God in another person’s life by dampening that person’s spirit. Because Elijah prophesied a drought, he sent his servant to search out evidence of coming rain for which he had prayed. The answer came after seven efforts with the servant finally saying there was a cloud the size of a man’s hand. We don’t know how God will answer our prayers. It could even be through a small piece of evidence that is coming. We might expect God to send boisterous and monstrous clouds expanding over the horizon. That is not how God works. He always does things his own way regardless of our expectation.
Most importantly, we have a kinship with Elijah when it comes to being lonely, experiencing loneliness in chapter 19. Loneliness might be accompanied by depression and anxiety. It might be a time in which we want to withdraw from other people. Loneliness is an inward thing with outward evidence. It could even lead to the extreme of considering suicide or the desire for God to take life when it is not time as Elijah did in verse four. Should we fall into the depths of loneliness, we could convince ourselves that we are the only ones in such a situation. We pity ourselves for what we think came upon us when in fact, we generated emotional depths for ourselves. Excessive sleepiness might be a means in which we retreat from our own life.
Being in this difficult situation, we could expect our prayers to be answered in some dramatic way such as fire, wind, earthquake. As we attend ourselves to God’s way of resolving the problem, the first thing we will learn is that he calls to us in a still small voice. Something simple and easy to miss could be God’s way of reinstating our emotional well-being. When we take a less biased viewpoint, we will find there are many others in our situation. These are people that would understand our difficulty because they have already been there. When God responds to our withdrawn state from society, we must take care of our bodily needs such as food and drink. Whether we feel like it or not, it is very important that we return to the work for which God has called us. It might be to anoint other people so they could further God’s plan. Most important of all the lessons that we could learn is that life is not about us. We are not the center of the universe. We are not the primary motive for how things happen. It is all about God, his plan, his glory. That must always be our intention to put him in the center, follow his directives, and always give him glory.
Christian Writer 