“And I, I only, am left…” – 1 Kings 19:10, Amplified Bible (AMP)

The other day I learned that an acquaintence of mine had recently died. On the outside, he seemed to have it all: a family, wealth, and a positive outlook on life. But deep down inside, he wrestled with demons that only a few knew about, and in the end those demons drove him to substance abuse and suicide.

What drives a person to such despair that death is more attractive than life? The causes are many, and even the strongest person can be broken under the weight of just one of them. The prophet Elijah, so close in relationship with God that he, like Enoch, had the honor of being translated to Heaven without seeing death, despaired of life for one of the most common reasons that drive people to despair: he felt totally abandoned.

In 1 Kings 19:10, Elijah complained to God, “And I, I only, am left” of all of God’s prophets. Feeling abandoned, beaten down, and all alone, Elijah just wanted out. Many who take their lives have shared Elijah’s loneliness. What they could have also shared with Elijah, but didn’t, was the solution to that loneliness: the realization that we are never alone, unless we choose to be.

In 1 Kings 19, God clearly showed Elijah that He Himself was with the prophet. Then, He informed the prophet that there were thousands of others in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Between these two proofs, Elijah came to know that he was indeed NOT alone, and once he understood that his abandoned state was only a figment of his imagination, Elijah returned to his faithful service to God.

The reality is that we are never alone unless we choose to be. God is constantly available to us, and God is regularly willing to provide other people to us in our times of need. Not always, but often, bad habits we engage in drive others away, and rather than give up the unacceptable behavior to save our relationships, we give up our relationships to save the foolishness we love so much. Then, when others, including God, have forsaken us because of our choices, we find oursevles truly alone.

Even when all have abandoned us, we can take comfort in the fact that the abandonment will end as soon as we turn our backs on our sin and beg God and others to forgive us. True repentance and forgiveness restores relationships, and the only impediment to tranforming loneliness into fellowship is our love for self supplanting our love for God and for others. If we would just love God and others more than self, we would never risk being alone again.

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