Day 34 of our series is by Rick Velez and is a look into how we are never alone. You can see more devotionals here

Never Alone

Rick Velez

When I was working in the prison, there was an area called Restrictive Housing; people know it as solitary confinement. It is where the inmates are confined for a period of time due to a violation of the rules or it could be due to their sentence by the courts. They are locked up for 23 hrs/day and come out for only 1 hr/day for recreation (shower, stretch their legs in a hallway). It can be very lonely.

We are intended to live and relate in relationships and community, not in isolation. This is what makes solitary confinement such a harsh punishment.

Q: How has the fight to stay connected been going for you?
Q: What action step can you take today to connect?

Isolation is the agony Christ suffered when His eternal relationship with the Father was broken on the cross. We hear this in His cry captured in Matthew 27:46 “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ (which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?).” As He suffered and died under the burden of our sins, Christ was suddenly alone, forsaken, isolated, cut off from His relationship with the Father. Yet His suffering in isolation secured for us the promise of the Father:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”

Hebrews 13:5b

Christ endured the agony and abandonment of the cross for us so that we would never be alone or abandoned by God – EVER.

Those who know Jesus are never alone.

Reflect: Reflect on the fact that you are never truly alone and that God is always with you.