Never Alone: Unpack Loneliness and Revitalize Your HeartExemplo

Devotional

Lovingkindness has beautiful roots in our Bible. It stems from the Hebrew word chesed (or hesed), which doesn’t translate perfectly into English but involves mercy, goodness, and steadfast love.

The Mayo Clinic has published endless public data on how kindness increases things like self-esteem, empathy, and compassion while improving your mood. Showing kindness reduces cortisol within our bloodstream, essentially lowering our stress. Overall, health-wise, showing kindness has been proven to lower blood pressure and increase longevity.

When we are kind and do for others, our brains light up like Christmas trees with all the feel-good hormones that combat negative mental health symptoms and experiences like loneliness.

Winston Churchill is credited with saying, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give '' and it’s epically true. Allan Luks conducted research with over 3,000 participants who were involved in volunteering. His data demonstrated how not only did the “high” last for weeks—it returned when the participants thought about the things they did.

For someone experiencing loneliness, especially, this can radically change their lives. It’s more than clicking a button or writing a check—you must show up. Kindness can radically transform your loneliness.

First, John 3:16–18 tells us: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

I love this section of 1 John. It begins with bringing so much more good news and the gospel of recognition that those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son and who put our trust in Him for our salvation are children of God. John discusses sin as part of the big picture, but in his first letter, we see how abiding in Jesus is the way and the truth.

We witness it in all its glory with Ruth. As you finish your study, I hope your heart is filled with joy. God uses Ruth to demonstrate His love and steadfastness so beautifully. I pray Ruth’s journey, and this plan have given you a new lens to view your pain of loneliness and have given you the tools to bring yourself out of it. Changed, but not broken. And we are never alone; God is always with us.

This devotional was based on the book Never Alone by Jessica Manfre. Click here to purchase the book and learn how God will walk with you through loneliness.