Feel Lonely? How To Prime the Pump with God

You may feel alone and lonely sometimes; that’s normal. But remember this: the Holy Trinity is in your corner, dwelling in your home, living in your body, riding in the car with you—watching over you.

Start thinking interpersonally about the Trinity. Include the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your emotional life and daily affairs. Call on the Lord in practical ways—I mean talk to God with gut-wrenching honesty about what’s going on in your life. Good times. Bad times. In-between times. Of your own free will, build a back-and-forth communication of speaking and listening to the Trinity. 

Talk with Jesus

Here are some ways to prime the pump. 

• Pray for all of your relationships. 
• Pray for your enemies. 
• Pray for guidance at work and in family life. 
• Pray for your development as an individual in Christ. 
• Pray for God’s augmenting wisdom to bless every little facet of your life. 
• Pray for God to remove rigid personality trends and replace them with life-enhancing balance. 
• Pray for your needs and praise God in advance for his blessings. 
• Draw near to God in love and adoration. 
• Glorify God for the coming redemption of the world and your part in it. 
• Love God up for the many ways he interacts with you.

Prime the Pump

There. You’ve faced your worries, called upon the Lord, and delighted God’s heart by leaning on him. Make this your life posture tonight, tomorrow, this week.

God’s plans for you are brimming with energy. 

• He will anoint and direct you in future situations. 
• He will oversee the events in your life and help straighten out ruffled relationships. 
• God knows you inside and out—genes and chromosomes, talents and deficiencies, needs and hopes—and loves you tenderly. 

The Lord never uses this knowledge against you, the way some people might, but inspires your intuition, infuses your dreams and daydreams, brings words of wisdom into consciousness, sculpts the flow of life situations, and converses with you like I am doing right now. 

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). 

Plans for Good

Keep developing your individuality in Christ. In the long haul, Jesus will fulfill those heart’s desires that conform to his will for you. When life seems to go awry, ask Christ whether he has permitted an adverse situation for your transformative growth, or whether you have strayed from his plans and purposes.

To discern God’s will for you, pay attention to inner and outer developments. God may change your own perspective, or he may alter unfolding circumstances. You remain focused on praying for Christ’s will and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. 

Do the next thing that seems right. God is faithful and creative in shaping events as they move forward in time. 

• He may use a word of knowledge or wisdom spoken to your heart by the Holy Spirit. 
• He may quicken a passage of Scripture that you recall or read with new insight. He may bring you new information by having someone call you or causing a letter to arrive in the mail. 
• Or he may simply give you an inner peace that says, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isa 30:21).

Your job is to pray and trust 

without telling God how to act. 

Pray and Trust in God

God relishes helping you through absolutely anything you face, blessing you in the process. Once you’ve made it through, don’t forget to praise the Lord for his resourcefulness and timing. He likes that.

For more, read:

Faith Beyond Church Walls: 

Finding Freedom in Christ

How Does Prayer Work?

I can't speak for other world religions, even though I respect aspects of what they teach and uphold. But I can speak for Christianity because I met Jesus Christ fifty years ago. If it wasn't for Jesus, Christianity would be just a religion, and I wouldn't have much interest in it. My lifetime work as a psychologist for Lord has only intensified my fascination with prayer.

What does Jesus teach us about prayer? First of all, he teaches us that through the doorway he provides, God the Father becomes our personal Father. Christ teaches us to pray to God like he did, which means to pray all the time, everywhere, about anything that truly concerns us. And he teaches us to pray in his name, which means that we submit to his authority and trust in his guidance.

How does this translate into practical prayer? Wonderfully. You see, I was trained as a scientist in my graduate and undergraduate education, and I learned to have an inquisitive mind, to try out novel experiments and gather research about how the natural laws of the universe work.

So when I met Jesus, when I asked him to enter my life and reveal more about God to me, I found a freedom to pray in his name and see how prayer works. One of my first prayer experiments got an unexpected answer. My girlfriend, who had graduated from high school a year ahead of me, fell in love with a college guy, a beefy football player whom I personally detested.

The week of their marriage I stood in my bedroom and lay my broken heart before the Lord. "I can't stand this pain, Lord, and I can't stand losing this woman I love. Will you please show me how to get through this?"

I waited. Nothing seemed to happen. But when I turned around, my eyes fell on a Bible sitting on my dresser. I felt compelled by an invisible force to cross the room and placed both hands upon the Bible. With that action a peace infused my whole being, and a calm inner voice said, "Dan, you can stand it, because I am standing with you."

When we enter conversation with God, we can actively expect his attentiveness, and trust in the great care with which he will answer us, sometimes immediately, sometimes within the week, and sometimes twenty years later.

Go ahead and pray about anything that brings you anxiety, depression, or stress. Ask for God's divine intervention. For his wisdom to flow into a situation and change the outcome in constructive ways. For his presence to positively influence a troubled relationship. For his will to be done in your life.

And don't forget to thank him for all the good things he does. It warms his heart, just like his companionship through the years warms yours.

For more about prayer and companionship with God, read  

Trusting In The Trinity: Compass Psychotheology Applied