Classic Chuck Swindoll study guide back in print

GOD REALLY DOES CARE FOR YOU! Some time ago someone placed this ad in a Kansas newspaper: I will listen to you talk for 30 minutes without comment for $5.00. Sounds like a joke, doesn't it? But the person was serious. Did anybody call? You bet. It wasn't long before this individual was receiving ten to twenty calls a day. The piercing pain of loneliness was so sharp that some were willing to try anything for a half hour of companionship. God knows your feelings of loneliness, my friend, and he does care. Please believe that! He not only knows and cares, he understands, he is touched, he is moved. And he longs to sustain and deliver us. Jesus Christ himself experienced the maximum impact of loneliness, as he hung on the cross. His friends had already fled. One had betrayed him. In the bottomless agony of that moment, the Lord cried out--he literally screamed aloud (Matthew 27:45-46). The loneliness of those dark moments, as the Savior carried our sin, cannot be adequately pictured on paper. Cold print cannot convey it. But is it any wonder that he is now able to sympathize and enter in as we battle feelings of loneliness? Those who bear the scars of that silent warfare need no explanation of the pain--only an invitation to share in the wound and, if possible, help in the healing. When we are lonely, we need an understanding friend. Jesus is the One who sticks "closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). When we are lonely, we need strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other--Jesus is the One who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). When we are lonely, we need to lift our eyes off ourselves. Jesus, the "author and finisher" of the life of faith, invites us to fix our eyes on him and refuse to give up (Hebrews 12:1-3). God is a specialist when the anguish is deep. His ability to heal the soul is profound, but only those who fully rely on his Son experience relief. By turning from the loneliness of sin and unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ, you can have confidence that God cares for you: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Won't you put your trust in him today?