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Attacking the Agony of Loneliness!
- Ronald Bainbridge
- Sep 2, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Friends, Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES is an Evangelical Outreach
that provides men and women with messages of Encouragement and Hope, as well as empowering seekers, along with believers in Jesus Christ worldwide, to understand, experience, and celebrate their oneness with all others who know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, regardless of denomination, church fellowship, or historic tradition.
Friends, in a world too often filled with bad news, the primary desire of Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES is to share the “Good News” that a loving God has made it possible for everyone to enter a personal relationship with Himself through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful reality that we treasure and enjoy by trusting that it is true:
(Acts 2:38-39; 2 Corinthians 5:17)
Our Stories centre around
(Real People, Real Events, Real Places)
And they are dedicated to HELPING
PEOPLE FIND SALVATION, PEACE and HOPE
Through entering a genuine
Relationship with Jesus Christ,
Who has declared,
“In this world you will have trouble,
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
(John 10:10; 14:1-6)
(16:33; Acts 2:36-47)
Editor: Ron Bainbridge
TODAY’S MESSAGE
OF HOPE
AND
ENCOURAGEMENT
ATTACKING
The
AGONY
of
LONELINESS!
Friends, Paul Tournier opened his book, “Escape from Loneliness,” by referring to a secretary who turned on her radio each evening just before the station closed to hear these closing words: “…and so, we bid you a very pleasant good night!”
An international welfare organisation employed the lady he referred to. Her life was busy; her work was appreciated; she received every courtesy, and yet, each evening before falling asleep, she reached for the radio and the sound of a human voice speaking to her: “…we bid you a very pleasant good night!”
Sociologist Suzanne Gordon has called loneliness “The New Human tradition.” In large cities and small, at every economic and educational level, crossing all racial and ethnic boundaries, we are lonely people, alienated and detached.
Friend, human relationships are not merely pleasant or desirable; they constitute one of our greatest needs. Jesus made this our new obligation when he said, “I give you a new commandment: Love one another; Love one another as I have loved you. By your love for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35).
Dr. James J. Lynch has shown in his book, “The Broken Heart”, that lonely people live significantly shorter lives than the general population.
However, while the ache of loneliness is real, it doesn't have to be your reality!
Well, how does one go about cultivating relationships? How can you learn to be giving, understanding, and caring? How can I be a friend? Psychologist Alan Loy McGinnis has offered five basic rules for strengthening relationships, which I’d like to share with you. They are as follows:
(1) Establish friendship as your top priority.
(2) Try hard to cultivate a certain transparency.
(3) Talk about your affections.
All too often, we are so afraid of being sentimental that friendship is lost because it goes undeclared. Many years ago, the author George Eliot wrote this letter to a friend: “I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are the same kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of literature and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.”
(4) Learn the gestures of love. Edna St. Vincent Millay put it this way: “Tis not love’s going hurts my days, but that it went in little ways.” Friendship often slips away from us “in little ways.” On the other hand, small acts of kindness and courtesy can strengthen relationships.
(5) Friendship must have space. Give your friends room. Too many people are possessive and manipulative with their friends. Fearing they might lose them, they dominate them. This is a sure road to loneliness! Kahlil Gibran advised concerning marriage: “It is important that you give your friends room to grow.”
However, Friend, more than anything else, when you are lonely, you need an understanding friend. Jesus is the one---perhaps the only one---who can really understand! And the reason I say this is because utter loneliness is what He felt when, while hanging on the Cross of Calvary, He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 24:46).
Therefore, in a very real sense, you and I have an ally in Jesus! Because in the strangling grip of the Cross, He experienced the maximum impact of LONELINESS!
OUT OF THE DARKNESS!
To hear this ~Podcast~
Please click on the Link below:
Friend, if you would like to know more about how you can overcome the agony of loneliness and have more and better friends, we encourage you to listen to Max Lucado's Podcast on "THE LANGUAGE OF LONELINESS"
To hear this ~Podcast~
Please click on the Link below:
“The thread of our life would be dark,
Heaven knows!
If it were not with friendship and love
Intertwined!”
To hear and view this ~Video~
Please click on the Link below:
To hear and view this
~Video~
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“In Jesus, I found how great a love can be”
This Blessing Is For You
To hear and view this
~Video~
Please click on the Link below:
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