We all have moments when we feel overcome with loneliness. Then, there can be certain seasons of life when feeling alone starts to become a bigger, more constant burden than the occasional off day.
This phase of life as a single Catholic man or woman can be a heavy time of loneliness. It’s tempting to believe the lie that you are truly alone. But the truth is that you are never truly alone, even when it seems like the loneliness might overwhelm you. God is always with you and he will never leave you.
If you’re struggling with feeling alone lately, here are seven Scripture passages to turn to in prayer for comfort and help.
Don’t be afraid, God is always with you
“Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
When you feel alone, one of the best places to start in prayer is with the truth that God is with you in your loneliness.
Read more: 5 Things To Remember When God Is Silent In Prayer
Despite how we might feel, you aren’t totally alone. God is right beside you (even when it feels like he’s silent!) and will give you the strength that you need to overcome the obstacles you are facing.
Draw near to God
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
When you feel alone, it can be easy to become wrapped up in feelings of despair and to think that there is no way out of your misery. It can even feel as if God is far from you.
But this Scripture passage is a reminder that God will be closer to you if turn to him in your misery. He is ready to assist you and is waiting for you to come and share your experience and pain with him.
You’re not apart from God, no matter how it might feel
“Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there, if I lie down in Sheol, there you are. If I take the wings of dawn and dwell beyond the sea, even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).
This passage from the book of Psalms has a few things to say about the impossibility of being truly alone, since God is everywhere.
It might feel like you can’t reach God. It might even feel like he is not able to reach you in your loneliness. But these feelings are not true. God can come to you, wherever you are.
How do you relate to God when you’re feeling lonely?
“Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Many times, feelings of loneliness manifest themselves as a feeling that there’s no one you can turn to, no one you can share your heart with.
But there is always someone, regardless of your relationship status. Whether or not you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, or if there’s a ring on your finger, there is someone who can carry your burdens any time.
When you feel alone, you can turn to God with all of your burdens and he will help you to carry them because he loves you.
Are you worried that God won’t take care of you?
“Father of the fatherless, defender of widows–God in his holy abode, God gives a home to the forsaken, who leads prisoners out to prosperity” (Psalm 68:5-6 ).
This Scripture passage details the ways God cares for those who are alone.
You might not think of yourself as “forsaken” even when you feel lonely, but one translation actually puts it, “God places the lonely in families.”
Reading passages like this might at times might make you feel resistant if you don’t feel like you’ve experienced God caring for you like this. Maybe as you try to pray through a passage like this, you might feel the need to ask God, “Why haven’t you done this for me?”
Those feelings are okay. That experience is valid. God wants you to bring feelings like this to him, and even to ask him to be faithful to what he has said in Scripture.
Enter into the garden with Christ
When you are feeling truly miserable and utterly alone, there is perhaps no better Scripture passage to pray through than the account of Jesus during his Passion, especially during the agony in the garden. You can turn to Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, or Luke 22:39-46.
Praying through one of these passages when you’re feeling alone, you can focus especially on how Jesus found the three apostles were asleep. In his greatest moment of need, Jesus was alone, without any friend to comfort him.
When you’re feeling deeply alone, you can pray through the story of Jesus in garden. Ask him to allow you to accompany him, to unite your own loneliness to his.
Jesus will be there, no matter what
After the events of Jesus’ passion and death, his disciples must have felt such joy to have him with them again when he rose. But eventually, it was time for Jesus to ascend into Heaven.
As he prepared to leave them, his disciples must have felt the fear of being alone. But in Matthew 28:20, Jesus assures them, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
If you’re feeling alone, cut off from human relationships, and maybe even doubtful that God will remain with you because of the intensity of the loneliness you feel, you can turn to this passage in prayer and meditate on Christ’s words to his disciples.
No matter what you might be facing in your life, no matter what might be going on in the world, He is with you, even until the end of the world.
