HELP ME!!!

These are often the words that believers cry out to God, but they are so often done in a way that sees God as someone we turn to in trouble and ignore when things seem to be going well.

A few weeks ago in our Wednesday night Bible study (yes, I know I have procrastinated in posting again), the title of the chapter from the Green Letters was HELP.

These are the first two sentences of that chapter: "For most of us, it is time to stop asking God for help. He didn't help us to be saved, and He doesn't intend to help us live the Christian life."

Your response may be as many to this: "What!?" "Burn that book!"

However, when we continue to examine this chapter, we realize the point that Dr. Stanford is making. Help implies two people being involved in something. If I ask you to come help me weed my flower beds, I am not expecting you to come do all the work while I sit in a lawn chair sipping sweet tea and watching you work. No, help means you and I are doing it together.

The point that Dr. Stanford is making is that God has done it ALL. We cannot add anything to what he has done. God provided our salvation Himself. He didn't need our help. And God has provided everything we need to live the Christian life. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that we have been blessed with ALL spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Stanford says that immaturity considers the Lord Jesus a Helper. Maturity knows Him to be Life itself.

A.W. Tozer says, "In our private prayers and in our public services we are forever asking God to do things that He either has already done or cannot do because of our unbelief." Stanford says, "Our responsibility is to see in the Word all that is ours in Christ, and then thank and trust Him for that which we need."

We as humans have responsibility. We are to be searching the Scriptures to see all that we have in Christ. But we are to be looking to God by means of the Holy Spirit to produce these things in us. When we simply have the attitude that we just need some help from God, we put too much confidence in ourselves that we have something good to offer. Remember, the flesh never becomes more Christ like. We become more Christ like as we learn what it means to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow God to produce the life of Christ in us.

Let us stop crying to God for help when He has already provided the victory for us!