Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled When You're Lonely, was written by Karen Huang.

At 7 p.m., Wei Yang was in his kitchen, eating rice and leftover fish balls.

The Schwaw family in the apartment next door was having dinner too,

and their laughter and conversation cut through the silence of Wei Yang's unit,

where he had lived alone since his wife died.

He'd learned to live with loneliness.

Over the years its stabbing pain had become a dull ache. But tonight, the sight of the one bowl

and pair of chopsticks on his table pierced him deeply. Before he went to bed that night, Weyong read Psalm 23, his favorite Psalm. The words that

mattered most to him are only four syllables. You are with me. More than the shepherd's practical

acts of care toward the sheep, it was his steadfast presence and loving gaze over every detail of the life of the sheep

that gave Wei Yang peace.

Just knowing that someone is there, that someone is with us, brings great comfort in those lonely moments.

God promises his children that his love will always be with us and that he'll never leave us.

When we feel alone and unseen, whether in a quiet kitchen, on the bus going home from work,

or even in a crowded supermarket, we can know that the shepherd's gaze is always on us.

We can say, you are with me.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his namesake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil.

For you are with me.

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