07/02/2022
We might be a person who never wants help, or someone one who is reluctant to seek help; then again, maybe we are one of those who readily asks for help, or goes straightway for help at the slightest hint of trouble. As God’s children we all have different personalities, so He deals with each of us individually. God wants us to come to Him for help, He gave us Jesus and were are told that whatever we asked for in His name he would do for us, and the Lord also tells us to help one another. So whatever our personality, we are provided a readymade avenue of help that is comfortable for each of us… but the foundation of all these begins and ends in Him. How do we seek and give help in our lives today? In what way has God transformed, or influenced us in this regard?
“My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:2 ESV
We listen to the radio, or watch the television, and they are filled with commercials in which some company or person is offering to “help” us, but there is always a price, or fee, that is expected in return for it. We read a story in the morning newspaper about how our government is offering to “help” disaster victims with “disaster relief funds”, but in truth there is always a string attached, like yielding control, giving up a freedom, or becoming subservient in some way. This is not the help that God offers us, or that He wants us to give to others.
“And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Luke 6:34-36 ESV
Only God gives us help without seeking anything from us except that we love Him as He loves us. No camouflaged price, no years of monthly payments, no implied subjugation, and no promise of help in which He enriches Himself at the expense of those who need His help. Nowhere is this more evident than in Jesus Christ. God offers His Son to us, and for us, with no obscure clauses, or hidden agendas, only love.
““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
John 3:16-18 ESV
And who is this man Jesus? Is he so perfect, and above us, that He can’t possibly understand the problems we face in our lives or know the help that we need? No, He was made to be like us. Jesus felt, and feels, pain, heartbreak, and all the tribulation we encounter every day in our lives. So when He helps us it is because He intimately knows our suffering.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Hebrews 4:15-16 ESV
Jesus helps us without regard for Himself. We only have to look to Calvary to see that this is true. He hung there suffering, burdened with our sin, dying, and yet, He asked that we be forgiven. So often we read these words He spoke from the cross, and lose the enormity of them; they are our greatest help… they not only healed us from past sun, but heal us from the sickness of ongoing sin, and without Him saying this our present sins would still be accumulating.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 ESV
He didn’t pray that we be forgiven for what we have done, but for what we DO, or are DOING. Our past sins were taken from us the moment we believed, and now those we face in the present are forgiven as well. Do we accept not only the help of Christ for our past lives, but for those we are living now… in this moment? Jesus healed, and continues to heal, or in other words he helped us, and continues to help us. Can we feel the power that emanates from such love, and is this the same love we ourselves are feeling for others?
“And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.”
Luke 23:34 ESV
We have talked about God and His help, and Jesus and His help, but what about the way in which WE give help to others? Do we help them with the same love that we have for ourselves? Do we give our help just as willingly, and unabashedly as God wants us to give it in all things? This should br the true nature of our good work… not out of obligation, but out of love.
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
2 Corinthians 9:7-8 ESV
In the first great commandment we are told to love god, but in the second we are told to love one another.
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:37-39 ESV
Is this how we help a neighbor, and who is a neighbor anyways? This is the question asked of Jesus and the subject of His response when He tells us the parable of the Good Samaritan… listen…
“But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?””
Luke 10:29 ESV
“Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”
Luke 10:30, 33-35 ESV
This parable is one in which Jesus describes not only who our neighbor is, but how we should give help to him. In the modern world we are inclined to think that a neighbor is someone we know, or who lives in our community, or at least close by, and typically that they live just as we do, but Jesus shows us something very different. Our neighbor can be a stranger, someone whose beliefs don’t match our own, or they might even be our enemy. Jews detested Samaritan’s, and visa versa, yet in this parable the Samaritan helps this man without a second thought, and with all he could give him. Is this how we give help? If we were offered help by a stranger, or an enemy would we accept it? Maybe we should reassess our faith, or at very least revisit with the eyes of Christ the walls we have constructed around it.
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12 ESV
So, today let’s look hard at the walls we have constructed about ourselves, and the defenses we have placed about them that determine who we will offer our help to, and who, and how we will seek help from others. Let’s come to understand that if we are to help others we must first learn what it means to love them, and that if we experience that love then we must be prepared to know heartbreak too.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for helping us each and every day; thank you for Jesus who intercedes and helps us live holy lives; thank you for the humility to accept help from others, and for the strength to help those we encounter that are in need. Thank you most Father for teaching us to accept, and provide help with the fullness of your love, grace, and the character that we have received during our transformation in Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to love you as you love us, and to love one another as we love ourselves, so that we might help, and receive help, in the spirit of righteousness that you intend us to abide in. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who has loved us from the foundation of all creation… from the dark depths of the void that existed before you spoke “let there be light.” Praised be your name for the help that you provide us, your help that was given birth from the love that is the essence of who you are. Merciful are you who has opened gates in the walls that we have built around ourselves, and made it possible that we love, help, and forgive others just as you do us. Wash us clean in the greatest help ever given us, the blood of Jesus Christ, and help us to pass that gift of help on to all who will listen. Teach us that every tiny drop of love, and help we can give to others, flows together to make a stream, a river, and the sea of judgement that we will one day be immersed in… help us to be worthy of the boundless, endless, and ever reaching, ocean of eternity that is you. Help us to know your gift of love, to give of ourselves to others, and to see Jesus for who He is. Holy Spirit, help us to ask for a drink of living water, and lift us up towards Heaven, and our eternal home.
“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.””
John 4:10 ESV
Rich Forbes