God is my Helper

Psalm 54:4

“Behold, God is my helper;”

I recently began a new job and overall am very happy with it, but the other night, I was having to do a task that I wasn’t as experienced with and I seemed to struggle with it throughout the entire shift. I kept thinking, “I can’t do this, this is just too hard, this is too much for me to handle, I am just too incompetent for this.”

Well, I went home that night and cried my heart out to the Lord in prayer about it. I said, “Lord, you know I am so thankful for my job but I want to be able to do my job well, I don’t want to have to struggle with it like this. Please help me, please strengthen me and enable me to do this much better.”

After this, I went to sleep and when I woke up, I suddenly recalled the verse, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and I felt like God was telling me, “Yes, you can do this, you can do this through Me.” I knew then that when I went to work again, I would not be worried about my job, but rather I would trust in Him to strengthen me.

Well, let me say, the Lord indeed heard my prayer and He indeed was my helper! The second night on the same job and yet this time, somehow by His amazing power and strength, I was able to do my job so much better and faster, and my shift went so well and I actually enjoyed doing my job! Now, how could this be except that God really did hear my prayer and came to my rescue and enabled me with strength I needed? In my mind and heart, I was thanking Him all night and praising Him for being my helper in time of need.

What an awesome and loving Father we have that He is indeed present in our lives every day and when we need Him and call on His help He comes to our aid? How wonderful is this? I love Him and thank Him so very much!

Are you struggling with something in your life? Call on the Father for His help, for He loves you and cares for you, and He will be your helper too!

Psalm 30:10-12

“Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!”

Psalm 31:7

“I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,
For You have considered my trouble;”

Psalm 46:1

“God is our refuge and strength,

A very present help in trouble.”

Psalm 34: 8

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”

Love One Another

(I came across this poem and loved it!) 

LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”
by Helen Steiner Rice

 

MAY SEEM IMPOSSIBLE TO DO-
BUT IF YOU WILL TRY TO TRUST AND BELIEVE
GREAT ARE THE JOYS THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE…
FOR LOVE MAKES US PATIENT, UNDERSTANDING AND KIND,
AND WE JUDGE WITH OUR HEARTS AND NOT WITH OUR MIND…
FOR AS SOON AS LOVE ENTERS THE HEART’S OPEN
DOOR, THE FAULTS WE ONCE SAW ARE NOT
THERE ANYMORE,
AND THE THINGS THAT SEEMED WRONG BEGIN TO LOOK RIGHT
WHEN VIEWED IN THE SOFTNESS OF LOVE’S GENTLE LIGHT…
FOR LOVE WORKS IN WAYS THAT ARE WONDROUS AND STRANGE,
AND THERE IS NOTHING IN LIFE THAT LOVE CANNOT CHANGE,
AND ALL THAT GOD PROMISED WILL SOME DAY COME TRUE
WHEN YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER THE WAY HE LOVES YOU.

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if  you have love for one another.”–John 13:34,35

Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers?

In John 11, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, was very sick. The Bible indicates to us that they were friends with Jesus and well acquainted with Him and His ability to heal the sick, so obviously, they knew that Jesus could heal their brother.

Verse 5,6

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

“So, when he heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.”

Do you see this? The verse says Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters…and yet, He did not come rushing to heal Lazarus when they called for Him. In fact, Jesus deliberately waited until after Lazarus had died before He ever came to Mary and Martha.

There have been times in my life that I have pleaded with the Lord for help but His answer didn’t always come right away. When we don’t get an immediate answer from Him, we are often tempted to feel that He is ignoring our prayers, or that He doesn’t really care or love us.

Mary and Martha must have questioned the Lord too, because later on, each of them at separate occasions said to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” –verses, 21 and 32.

So, if the Lord loved Lazarus and his sisters, why did He not come running to their bidding? Why did He deliberately wait until all hope was gone and Lazarus was dead?

Jesus Himself gives two reasons in this chapter.

Verse 4–”This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

1. The first reason that Jesus waited was that God would be glorified.

Jesus did not come to Mary and Martha until their brother Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days. If He had come and healed Lazarus while he was alive, where would the glory of God be in that? People could have said Jesus didn’t really heal him, he just simply got better on his own. But, to wait until Lazarus had been dead and lying in his tomb for four days and his body already decaying…and bring him back to life…..who could explain something like that? The only answer to something like that is simply that it is a miracle of God. Only God could do something like that. And, for the people present at this time to see Jesus perform this miracle told them that God had given Him the power to raise people from the dead, so this Jesus must be someone special to God.

Jesus says to Martha in verse 40, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

I have come to believe that when problems come into our lives, they are just little miracles waiting to happen. What if every time a problem came into our lives, instead of getting worried and fearful, wondering where was God, we chose instead to get excited, knowing that God was about to do something wonderful in our lives? What if we saw our troubles as an occasion for God’s glory? God wants to be glorified, He wants us to acknowledge Him as our Creator, our Father, to know that He is always in our lives every day, taking care of us and loving us. Troubles and complications in our lives are merely opportunities God places in our lives to show Himself to us. When we wait on Him, and He shows His glory, we see God. What a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to see God at work in our daily lives! So the next time you have a problem and God doesn’t seem to be answering your call right away, just smile and get excited because it means God is up to something and He is about to do something to show Himself to you. 　

2. The second reason Jesus deliberately waited until Lazarus was dead was that people might believe that He is who He says He is, the Son of God.

Verses 14 and 15, Jesus tells His disciples plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

And in verse 41 and 42 just as Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He first prays to the Father, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Jesus wanted the people to believe that God had indeed sent Him into the world to save them from their sins, and to raise them from the dead and give them eternal life, and by performing this miracle, He was showing that God was indeed with Him.

So likewise, perhaps God often waits to answer our prayers because He wants us to exercise our faith. He wants us to believe, to grow in believing. Like bodily exercise, the more you exercise your muscles, the stronger they get. The more you exercise your faith by believing, the stronger your faith becomes.

So, through this passage about Lazarus, we can learn and take comfort that just because God does not answer our prayers right away does not mean that He does not love us, but rather, He does loves us, hears our cries for help, He does care about our troubles. Even when He doesn’t answer right away, He always Has our best interests at heart and is doing what is best for us.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”—-I Peter 5:6,7

Real Life Good Samaritan

The other day, I turned on my computer and the following story came up from Times Free Press and it just made my day:

 

While driving home today I witnessed a very genuine act of kindness from a complete stranger… After the warmer temps over the past few days, I was thoroughly surprised at today’s difficult and very icy commute home. The twenty-five minute drive from Downtown to Daisy Dallas Road took a little over an hour and once onto Daisy Dallas things did not improve; traffic had come to a stop and the reason for it was unknown. My husband and I, who had driven separately, had decided to meet at a local restaurant for dinner and to let things clear up on Daisy Dallas. Upon our return, however, we met the same slow stop-and-go traffic. This time we discovered the cause was due to the fact that many motorists were having a difficult time making it over a hill on a particular stretch of Daisy Dallas. As I sat there in my car wondering exactly when I’d get home, wondering if our dogs’ bladders were about to burst, praying that I wouldn’t have to keep watching my husband’s truck bed slide back and forth on the icy roads, a new situation unfolded before me. At first I didn’t realize what I was witnessing. I thought to myself, “This is so completely dangerous! I cannot believe this man is towing that broken-down van. What if the chain breaks!!” Then the van disappeared over the top of the hill and I was able to relax. When I saw the return of the man, who by the way was driving a tractor, it finally dawned on me what he was doing. Yes, that’s what I said…he was driving his very own farm equipment, exposed to the freezing temperature, all to help total strangers. Vehicle after vehicle he towed up the hill and each time he back ready to take the next. As I watched him pull my husband up the hill I couldn’t help but to tear up a bit. My husband was going to safely make it up the hill, as did countless others this evening all because of this one good Samaritan. After unhooking the chain from my husbands truck, he pulled off to the side so that he could yet again make a return trip to help the next stranger in need. As I passed him I just had to roll my window down to wave and thank him, but honestly it wasn’t enough. I’m amazed at his kindness and wish that I could thank him more for his kindness.

So grateful–

Holley B. Ducker

 

As I read this, I was struck with a few thoughts about this man and his tractor.

 

First, he was using what he had to help others. I asked myself, what has God given me, and what am I doing with it to use for the good of others? My possessions, my abilities, money, resources, etc.

 

Secondly, he was sacrificing his own comfort and convenience to go out of his way to help others. He was leaving the comfort and warmth of his home and taking on the great inconvenience to get out his tractor and go through the hassle of pulling one vehicle after another to help people get up the hill. Did he have to do this? No, he could have looked out his house window and said, “Glad its them and not me”  or, “Hope they find a way to get up the hill.”  This man put himself out there and he didn’t even have to.

 

Thirdly, he put himself at risk. Anything could have happened out there on that snowy hill. He very well could have been putting his own life at risk to a fatal accident, or at the very least, bodily injury, yet that risk did not stop him from going out and doing what he did.

 

I have no idea if this man is a Christian or not, but his actions speak loudly and I know it encourages me to want to be a better Christian, one who loves not by merely talking about it, but by action and truth. (I John 3:18)

 

“Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”—

I Corinthians 10:24

 

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”—-Philippians 2:3, 4

 

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”—Luke 9:23, 24

Don’t Worry, Be Happy In God

A couple of days ago, I was feeling a bit depressed.  As I have been recently laid off from my job, providing for my every day living has become more of a challenge. I was feeling thankful that all my bills were paid, but I was in the dumps because that didn’t leave me with much food in the house or much money left for gas that I knew I would need to take my daughter back and forth to school this week.  I kept thinking that my life is in the desert right now. I am living in the land of lack as opposed to the land of abundance. The more I kept thinking about my situation, the more I felt myself sinking further into depression. By the end of the evening, I was wallowing in the bottom of a pit of sorrow, self-pity, loneliness and despair. Why was God letting this happen to me?  Lord, please help me, I cried. And later that night, while I was reading something online, I believe God led me to a quoted scripture, a passage I have never read before from a book of the Bible that I don’t even know how to pronounce.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

“Though the fig tree  may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

nd the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, 

And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will….(fret? Cry? complain? rob a bank? no, watch this next verse….)

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength;

He will make my feet like deer’s feet,

And He will make me walk on my high hills.”

Is this awesome or what? It was like God was speaking right to me through His word. It was like He was telling me, It doesn’t matter what you don’t have, it doesn’t matter how much you don’t have, all that matters is that you have me!  He says, don’t worry about what you lack, just rejoice in me!

But, I have to admit, I was really curious about those last two verses. What does that mean, that God says He will make my feet like deer’s feet and will make me walk on my high hills?  How is that supposed to make me feel better? Well, I started thinking about deer. They are skittish creatures and they usually stay hidden in the woods or brush. Every now and then you might see them come out and graze in the meadow, looking secure, relaxed, unafraid.  But, you don’t see deer dancing around on the hill tops too often. They like to stay close enough to the woods so they can run for cover if they sense danger. I realized that this is what God is saying. Don’t fret about what you lack, just trust in me, be happy with me,  and I can make you feel secure, relaxed, unafraid, and happy enough to go dancing on the hill tops.

So, I am trusting you God. I am waiting for the high hills.

 

Isn’t it wonderful to be forgiven?

We all sin. We all mess up from time to time. We all do things that we feel guilty about. Things that belittle us, constantly poisoning our thoughts and feelings, little by little destroying our self-worth. The guilt from these mistakes starts feeling like a load of bricks weighing on our minds and hearts or like a ball and chain dragging behind us everywhere we go. The guilt of our mistakes and bad choices wont let us have any peace of mind.

Like a prisoner being led down the steps to a dark dungeon, or being led to death row, step by step, the regret and guilt of our mistakes leads us further and further down into a pit of darkness, despair, insanity, and death.

But, isn’t it wonderful, isn’t it the grandest thing to know that are sins can be forgiven? That no matter what we have done, no matter how bad it is, we can be forgiven? If we believe in the one who died for our sins, who paid for the penalty of our sins, and if we ask him to forgive us——He does!

Isn’t it marvelous to know that if we give just one call to the Great Judge, that he will pardon us?

And then… we stop on the steps going down to the dungeon and instead of going down further and futher, we turn around and begin to walk up.., up… up to light, hope, joy, peace, freedom, and life! Praise God, I am Redeemed!

Oh, isnt it such a wonderful thing to be forgiven?

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, Says the Lord, your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:4,8 )

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13, 14)

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