Where Does Our Help Come From

“I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth”
(Psa 121:1-2) NIV

We worship a wonderful God. He is a loving father who watches over us and wants to help us in our troubles. This is where we should look for our help. Why is it that we do not do this? It seems so often that when we do have a problem we pray about it and then immediately go about it in our own way and cause ourselves needless worry and frustration. I think that a large part of this is that we do not really put our trust in the Lord. We pay lip service to the comment about praying but when it really counts we still want to be in control and end up doing things our own way. Our old man, self, cannot seem to give up the control and let God do the work.

I am starting to see this as a real problem for us. I have a friend right now who says she is a Christian and yet she is letting her problems take over her life. She willingly admits that she is not giving them to the Lord but is trying to solve them herself. This may give a person some comfort in the short term because they think that they are dealing with their problems but in the long term they may be making things worse by not giving control over to the Lord, who loves them and wants to help them, if they would only let Him. This does not mean that we do nothing. We are responsible for our own actions and do have to deal with them, but to worry and fret and make a decision because it seems right at the time is not always the way to go. Too often we do not take responsibility for our actions and find ourselves repeating the same mistakes over and over. We are to learn from our mistakes and grow from them. This is where prayer and meditation and spending time with God puts you in the right frame of mind to help make a decision based on the Word of God and what He wants for your life.

I am reading the Psalms right now and find there is so much in them to help in this present time. David was going through many of the problems that we are experiencing today. He knew that his help came from the Lord and although he certainly acknowledged his problems, his solution was to cry to the Lord for help. The Lord is our safety net. He is always there. “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psa. 121: 3-4). He will keep our feet from slipping. He will keep us safe at all times as He does not slumber or sleep. He is our protection.

I am disheartened at times when I feel myself, as well as others, not giving our problems to the Lord. We are living in very uncertain times and it appears that 2008 could be a very hard year for people to understand. Through all the turmoil and uncertainty of this year we absolutely must be obedient to God. Through our obedience we can draw closer to God and be assured that He will help us through all that comes our way. It is absolutely amazing what God can do. Problems that seem so enormous to us right now are nothing to God and He can change them in a second. When we draw close to Him and trust in Him we are comforted and know that we don’t have to worry. We must not let the problems of today scare us so much that we find ourselves making the wrong decisions. Sometimes if we don’t know what to do, the best thing is to do nothing and wait on the Lord. Put your faith in Him and the answer will become obvious at some point.

In closing, from experience I know that sometimes we can let our problems overwhelm us, but when we give them over to the Lord it is amazing how an answer does come. It doesn’t mean that things will be easy, it just means that we know what to do. We are assured that with God’s help we can do anything.

“The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” (Psa. 121: 5-8).