Help

Today I was reading an adoration passage in Psalm 60.  Verses 11-12 say,

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
Through God we shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall  tread down our enemies.

I was struck with this thought…

Sometimes my enemies aren’t physical people.  Sometimes my enemy is doubt, or fear, or worry.  Sometimes my enemy is stress, or emotions out of control.  Sometimes my enemy seems like five little kiddos all demanding a piece of me at the same time (but that’s really just stress, right?)  So the question that struck me today is, where do I turn for help?  Too often I ask my husband to help, or I turn to my own creativity to solve a problem.  Start a movie for the kids.  Sit down and breathe.  Make a to-do list.  Sometimes I yell and lose control of the situation.  But vain is the help of man. 

What I really need when all of the situations hit me in the face is to turn to God for help.  When I am drowning in doubt, or guilt, or out-of-control emotions, I don’t just need another set of hands, or a fresh look at the situation – I need God.  I need to turn to Him FIRST.  I need to realize that any victory will only be through His strength.

When I shout, “HELP!” it needs to be to God first.  Sometimes He may use the help of man (or my husband, or my friend, or my kids) to help me.  But I need to turn to Him first.

Hope Thou in God

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Psalm 42:11

• The Lord will send HIs lovingkindness in the daytime(vs.8)
• He will give me a song in the night (vs.8)
• He is my rock (vs.9)
• Even when the enemy presses hard upon me, I can have hope in God and praise Him (vs.10-11)
• God is my strength (43:2)
• He will send His light and truth to guide me when everything seems dark and hopeless (43:3)
• He will give me joy and praise (43:4)
• The victory will not be because of my own strength, but because of God’s power (44:3)
• He gives us strength to tread down the enemy (44:5)

“Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.” Psalm 44:18 

Hope thou in God!

In My Distress

It has been a rough week with my kiddos.  They have been sick, cranky, and tired and I have been running on empty because I’ve been up in the night with them.  Last night things came to a head.  I needed to find the nasal aspirator so I could put Nolan to bed.  I had misplaced.  I prayed.  I asked the Lord to help me.  But I still couldn’t find it.  I felt abandoned.  Why wouldn’t God answer such a little prayer for me?  Why wouldn’t He just help me out so I could put the kids to bed and rest myself?  I started to doubt and to blame God.  Silly, right?  Over a nasal aspirator? 

But I think God was just brining me to the end of myself.  And a few minutes after Nolan was soundly sleeping, I found that silly little object – in the trash can.  Today I read Psalm 18 in my devotions.  And I was struck by verse 6, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.” 

In times of distress we can always call upon the Lord.  And if we are in a right relationship with Him, then we can have confidence that He WILL hear us.  And when we march boldly into His throne room with our request, our distress, our need for assistance, we can find mercy, and grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

I’m so glad that I don’t have to solve the problem myself.  I don’t have to stress out finding the answers.  I don’t have to doubt my God and lose faith.  I just have to call, and He will answer.  The rest of Psalm 18 showed me these things about my God…

• He can answer in powerful ways (v.7-16).  He definitely makes His presence known!
• He can deliver me (v.17-19)
• He can reward me for obedience (v.20-24)
• He can save (v.27)
• He can light the darkness (v.28).  Or…He can give me treasures in the darkness (see Isaiah 45:3).  But either way I don’t have to fear when things seem dark.
• He can help me to do what seems impossible (v.29, 34, 37)
• He can strengthen me (v.32)
• He can help me to walk the path He has set before me (v.33, 36).  Just like a mountain goat, He can make my feet narrow enough for the path, or He can widen the way before me so that I can walk in His way.
• He can sustain me, even when I feel weary to the bone (v.30-31, 35)
• He can give the victory (v.38-45)

If my God can do all of these things, then why do I not call unto Him in my distress, so that He will do these things for me?

Feb. 23, 2010 Devotions – He Marvelled Because of Their Unbelief

Mark 6:5-6  And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.  6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

It must have been very great unbelief in order to cause Jesus to marvel at it.  I wonder…has He ever had to marvel at unbelief in my life?  He shows Himself strong, He answers prayer, He provides needs, He gives direction, He is so good to me all of the time.  How do I respond?  Is it with greater faith, and greater works?  I have the Holy Spirit in my life.  John 14 promises that I should do greater works.  But what is my response?  Unbelief?  Refusal to pray?  An attitude of self-sufficiency?  Unwilling to deflect the glory to the right Person?  Surely, considering the many things He has done in me, for me, and to prove Himself to me, He must marvel sometimes at my lack of faith and trust and dependence on Him.  In Mark 6, He was in His own country – Galilee – these people had watched Him grow up.  They knew Him.  Yet they were unbelieving.  I do not want this to be the case in my life.  I do not want to know of Him, and not know Him (experientially).  When I know of Him, it should increase my thirst and desire to know Him more…in full reality.

Mark 6:31 teaches that those who have been ministering need to take a rest sometimes and refuel.

Feb. 22, 2010 Devotions – Help My Unbelief

Leviticus 10:10  And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

While I may not “be” holy as God is, yet He looks upon me as holy when He sees Jesus Christ.  I am to live a “holy” life before Him, and before others, that they may see a difference between the holy and the unholy.

Mark 4:40 “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”  This is what Jesus said to His disciples just after the storm.  He was in the boat with them the entire time, yet they thought that they were about to perish, and awoke Him in fear.  Sometimes this idea of living in Brooklyn, of moving, of making it financially, of raising a family in the City, of being a Pastor’s wife, make me very fearful.  Like giants of doubt and failure breathing down upon me.  And what is His response (when I finally bring my burden to His feet)?  “Why are you so fearful?  Where is your faith?”  I pray with the man of Mark 9:24 - “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”  I want to have stronger faith.  I want to trust my Lord and rely upon His promises…as a way of life and not just as a last resort.  Lord – help my unbelief!

Mark 5:36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

Feb. 15, 2010 Devotions

President’s Day

Mark 1:7  And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

John was a humble man and recognized his place in comparison with his Lord.

Mark 1:16-18   Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.  17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.  18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

The disciples immediately left their former lives of sin and followed Christ.  What remnant of my former life is still apparent?  Do I have vestiges of the sinful me that I still indulge?  In what areas am I unwilling to forsake all and follow Christ?

Feb. 12, 2010 Devotions

Another double day.  Busy with BSF yesterday.

Exodus 32 – the golden calf

vs. 20 – there are always consequences for sin, even if we repent, and even after God has forgiven us.

Praise the Lord for Moses who acted as an intercessor on behalf of the children of Israel, that God did not destroy them in His anger.  Who am I bringing before the Lord, pleading that He give them another opportunity to turn to Him, or to accept Him?  We see illustrated here the vitality and influence of the intercessor.

Exodus 33:13-17 “ Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.  14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.  15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.  16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.  17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.”

What a precious promise regarding the presence of the Lord!

Exodus 34:6-7 “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,  7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

What a description of the Lord I serve!