Help for the Helpless

                                                                                    Have a great holiday as we honor our veterans on this Veterans Day.                

Chuckle: "An attorney specializing in personal injury decided to branch out, so he added libel claims to his practice. He wanted to add insult to injury." --Sharon Berkey

Quote: "When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. . . For I am the Lord, your God" (Isaiah 43:2-3 NLT).

"The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid" (Hebrews 13:6 NLT).

Have you ever been in a situation when you felt totally helpless? Have you come to the point where no escape seemed possible unless there was direct Intervention by God Himself? This can happen to us on many levels such as with health, relational, or financial issues. Your circumstances right now may find you feeling trapped with no way out. Perhaps God has brought you to this point to help you realize your inability to move forward unless He helps by making a way.

Joshua had the Israelites camp by the Jordan river for three days before crossing it to claim the promised land. He had to make them realize their own helplessness. They were unable to move forward into that raging river and needed to acknowledge that it would take the hand of God Himself to calm it for crossing. See chapter 3 of Joshua.

Most times our feelings of helplessness comes from issues within our own hearts. We begin to despair because our own solutions are inadequate for our problems, especially our biggest problem -- the fact that our hearts are naturally set against God. There are patterns of sin and rebellion in our lives, and we feel helpless in the face of our own sinful tendencies.

Like the Israelites, it's only when we begin to recognize our helplessness in the deepest level of our hearts that we begin to cry out to God, "Oh, Lord, I need the answer which only You can provide." "But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears" (Psalm 18:6 NLT).

For God to do his greatest work in our lives, we must come to see ourselves as totally helpless and desperate. Helpless people are the most receptive to help. Self-sufficient people tend to struggle with life's problems in their own strength and refuse to seek God's help. But, when it comes to sin, we are all in the same boat. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 NIV).

In our hopeless and helpless state of sin, God came to us in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is in our helplessness that God's glory and the might of His power are displayed most. Only then will our lives make sense and we will begin to move against the current of our problems. We can go into any storm knowing that the Lord, the good Shepherd, brings calm and peace in the midst of our chaos. God does not always remove the problem, but He always walks with us and gives us strength to overcome it. "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble" (Psalm 46:1 NLT). God is not merely a temporary retreat; he is our eternal refuge and can provide strength in any circumstance.

Love, Jerry & Dotse