Some questions are truly tough, but some are really easy. Perhaps the easiest of all would be this one–” Do you need help?“. I suspect we would all answer “Yes!” and we would have a long list of things wherein we need it. Help is one need we all have in common, and thankfully it is available! Among the many “exceeding great and precious promises” found in the Bible one of the most precious is found in our text, “..I will help thee”. The attraction of this is found in the fact that we are weak and needy. Over and over we find ourselves in situations that push us to limit, forcing us to see our need of help. It is wonderful when we find it. However, there are times when our requests appear to be ignored, denied, or delayed, and we wonder why.
One of the problems related to this is that we tend to think of help as coming in the form of change. We ask for help and we want things to be different, better, or easier. When the situation doesn’t change we assume that God isn’t helping us. God, however, often helps us by empowering us to endure rather than by eliminating the problem. He wants us to endure rather than escape. Instead of changing the situation He changes the saints—enabling us to be content in our circumstances.
God knows what we don’t — difficulties are essential to our development. Just as wind strengthens the oak tree, the storms of adversity can make us stronger, better, and more productive. Although we don’t understand it or sense it, every drop of difficulty is measured out by the wisdom of our all wise, ever loving heavenly Father.
Until the Lord comes to reign and removes the curse from the earth things will be less than perfect. And as long as we are permitted to sin we will have to contend with the consequences. Until we receive a glorified body we will have to live with what we’ve got–aches, pains and all. The change we desire won’t come until the time appointed by God. Until that glorious day, when we will be delivered from sin and suffering, God allows us to be subjected to hardships. Until then we have to deal with unhealthy bodies, unrelenting pressure, unreasonable people, etc. Until then we must trust Him to help us, and He never fails to do as He promised. He cannot lie and He will not fail. His grace is sufficient for every need. So– instead of thinking “When will I get out of this?”, we should be thinking “What will I get out of this?”. That’s what kept Paul going when God refused to remove his thorn (2 Cor. 12:9).
Perhaps these words by Tim Hansel sums this up best. He said, “I have prayed hundreds, if not thousands of times for the Lord to heal me…and He finally healed me of the need to be healed”. As my friend Dennis Maxey said when he learned he was dying, “God is God and He is going to do what He wants to do— and that’s alright with me”. Help doesn’t always come in the form we desire or expect, but it comes. “Fear not” He will help you!
