Help

For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says “Do not fear, I will help you”. Isaiah 41: 13

Help – This word comes from a root word (azar) meaning to rescue or save or to excuse.  The general sense is military assistance, but in the Psalms God’s help arrives in personal intervention during illness (Ps. 28:7), oppression (Ps. 54:4), and great personal distress (Ps. 86:17).

It takes a long time to get to the place where we can ask for help.  We often know we need help but there is something in us that continues to shout, “I’m not going to give up.  I want it my way.  I don’t care!”  This is a symptom of normal insanity.  It is normal, all right, but it is insane.  It is the belief that doing the same thing we did before will magically result in a different consequence.  We always end up in the same place.  We are fighting against the way God designed the world and all of our shouting won’t change it.

When we finally become willing to surrender, we need help.  We have reached the end of ourselves at last.  Our surrender is the declaration of our inner bankruptcy.  We just can’t do it.  Calling on God at this point could be a fearful experience.  We have been so used to failure and disappointment.  We might fear that God will also find us unworthy.  But God is not like that at all.  God promises to rescue, to save us.  If God can say, “Do not fear”, what is there to really be afraid of?  Only the voice of our old self could be bold enough to call God a liar.  The truth is in God’s word.  He will help.  That inner old voice has been lying to us all along.  It is God’s word that we need to believe.  Remember today the admonition, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  The question of help is this:  Will I believe God’s promise or will I believe my old emotions?  Who am I going to listen to?