Lonely in Faith? Let’s Talk.

Many of us go through seasons of loneliness and isolation in our spiritual walk. Whether it’s feeling distant from God, lacking fellowship, or wrestling with unanswered prayers, these feelings are deeply discouraging.

How are we supposed to feel secure in our faith during times our God seems like a passive observer? While we can say that He will never abandon or forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5), it becomes much harder to believe that when God feels distant… But there’s a reason for it.

Loneliness in faith isn’t just about physical solitude; it’s often a profound sense of being spiritually unseen or unheard. Even biblical figures like David, Moses, and Jesus experienced moments of deep isolation and longing for God’s presence.

Mother Teresa expressed her own fifty-year struggle with spiritual darkness in her private writings, Come Be My Light:

“Darkness is such that I really do not see—neither with my mind nor with my reason. The place of God in my soul is blank. There is no God in me.”“The place of God in my soul is blank. There is no God in me. … The longing for God is terribly painful and yet the darkness is becoming greater. What contradiction there is in my soul.”—Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light¹

These seasons can feel like being isolated in a desert, but they also serve as periods of spiritual growth, refining trust and dependence on God. Mother Teresa eventually came to see her suffering as a small share in Jesus’ suffering—what she called “Jesus’ darkness” on the cross.

This realization allowed her to connect more deeply with those she served, fueling her compassion and expanding her ministry beyond India in the 1960s.

Through prayer, scripture, and honesty with God, we can find renewed strength in times of uncertainty. David laments his weakness and lack of faith to God in the scriptures—and so do I.

There’s a certain stillness in an honest confession with God, a weight that’s lifted when you lay all your struggles at His feet. Can you think of a time in the Bible when God punished an honest confession? When I know in my heart that I don’t trust His plan, I confess it to Him.

I then repent by surrendering my need to control everything in my life to God. Then I find that trusting Him is easier.

Fellowship with other believers is valuable, but ultimately, accepting and experiencing God is the ultimate solution.

This realigns us to rely on God rather than on humans. If you’ve ever wondered why God sometimes seems distant or silent, head over to our post on divine hiddenness!

There, we explore how it’s essential to our walk and why skeptics may want to take a closer look at the nature of a hidden, all-loving God.

Thanks for reading, and God bless you.

Citations

1. Mother Teresa. Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta. Edited by Brian Kolodiejchuk, Doubleday, 2007.(All biblical quotations are from the New American Standard Bible [NASB].)