Help

“Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.'” Isaiah 41:13

Help – In God’s world, we all need help.  Not a single person will ever reach the point in life where help is no longer necessary.  Of course, if we live in a world of fear and risk, our focus will not be on asking for help but rather on becoming self-sufficient.  Does that seem a bit contradictory?  Think about it for a moment and you will see that in a world filled with fear, I really can’t trust you to help me.  I can’t trust anyone because I know that if I do, and you fail, my risk goes up.  So, I must become independent of all others.  I must do it all on my own no matter who I use to get there.  But in God’s world, the secret to peace is dependence.  I need help.  And God says, “Trust me.  I will help you.”

The Hebrew verb azar is used to describe all kinds of help.  It covers physical help like providing food and shelter.  It describes encouragement and spiritual uplifting.  It is used to talk about military aid, accomplishing goals, defending against evil and community support.  But in this verse, Isaiah tells us that the real source of all these forms of help is really the trustworthiness of the Creator.  Without God’s help, we would have no help at all.

This is not an endorsement of the heresy that God helps those who help themselves.  That lie belongs in the world of fear because it suggests that I just need God’s assistance to accomplish my own goals.  No, in God’s world, help is a divine gift for the essentially helpless.  If my very breath is God’s gift to me, is there any doubt that God’s arrangement of support through circumstances and other people is not also a gift from His hand?  You and I have the privilege of becoming God’s instruments of help for others.  But it is never our strength that makes this possible.  Life is a gift to be distributed and help is the method of that distribution.

Do you live in a world where God really is your help?  Or are you stuck in the delusion that it’s really up to you and you just need God’s assistance when He isn’t too busy?  Don’t answer those questions without taking a hard look at your behavior.  When you get up in the morning, do you thank Him for breath?  When you go to work, are you seeking His presence?  When you face a test or difficulty, is your first thought about God’s hand in the circumstances?  Help is a sign of dependence.  How actively dependent are you today?