In the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible it says “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” And when He had completed furnishing and populating His glorious work of creative genius, Genesis 1: 31 then tells us “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good”. And yes, by the Word and the Spirit we know that it was more than just good, it was literally paradise! But then something terrible happened. A disease that would plague mankind for the remainder of his time on this planet. That disease was sin. And when sin entered, death and his cohorts came along for the ride and brought sickness, pain, hatred, murder, lying and a host of other cruel taskmasters whose only goal was to inflict pain and to separate us from God. Over the centuries every human being has been subjected to all of this cruel, callous and cold-blooded carnage, but God had a plan of saving grace made out even before He created the world. He already had a faithful and merciful solution that was with Him from the beginning, prophesied about in the Old Testament, manifested humanly in the New Testament and still available to us here in the 21st century. That solution was none other than the Prince of Peace and Lord of lords , the Messiah and Savior of the world , God's only begotten Son and the Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth! And this is the best news this old evil world could ever hear. Be that as it may though, God has not yet eradicated all of the troublesome issues running rampant in the land. But hang on, He will in due time. And in the meantime He has given us all the help we need during those times we wrestle with the difficulties of life. When Paul and Barnabas told the Lycaonians “We also are men of like passions with you” (Act 14: 15), he was basically telling them that everyone is subject to the same problems as everyone else. But then he told them that the difference between him and them was that he trusted the living God Who made everything. And since God made it, don’t you think He’s in complete control of it? “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10: 13) Nevertheless we still experience emotional heartaches throughout the dark days of relationship problems with others, we endure seemingly endless nights of agony in our human bodies from injury or illness, and suffer during the times when we are undergoing spiritual attacks in the furnace of affliction where you can’t even see the sky because of the smoke that’s in your eyes. But let me encourage you, dear ones, lean not to your own understanding but believe the Word of God which says “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” (Psalm 3: 3) You may not be able to lift your own head but God can, so look up through the smoke of the pain and the hurt and see Jesus sitting on the right hand of God making intercession for you! Let your soul proclaim “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 3: 3) You see, it’s God Who is the supplier of all our needs. And I mean when we are in real trouble, He’s there. When it looks like there is no way out and when your suffering seems beyond endurance, it is on God Whom you can depend. He is the only One Who will always come through. And He ain’t too busy for your little problems either. He wants you to cast all of your cares upon Him because He cares for you. In the Old Testament, Zerah the Ethiopian came with an army of a thousand thousand against Judah. This was the original million man march. King Asa of Judah only had 580,000 soldiers and was at an obvious huge numerical disadvantage. But Asa trusted God and this is what happened, “And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go against this multitude. O LORD, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee. So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.” (2 Chronicles 14: 11-12) Our God is more than enough and is always right on time. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46: 1) In fact, He has already given us everything we need to navigate the treacherous waters we find ourselves in here on earth. “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1: 3-4) Lord help us to use those things you have provided for our good, and please understand that we, who You know are but dust of the earth and exist in the frailty of humanity, still and always will seek Your help in all that we do with humility and sincerity. We know that You make the unbearable bearable, the intolerable tolerable, the hopeless hopeful, even us the unlovable lovable.
And one of the things that makes God’s love for us so special is the fact that He knows all about our troubles. “Thou tellest my wanderings: put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?” (Psalm 56: 8) In other words, He knows everywhere you’ve been, everything you’ve done and all that you’ve suffered. Not only is He well aware of it, but He is moved by it and has compassionately documented the tracks of every tear you have shed. Furthermore, He not only knows what caused it, but He truly understands your pain in it. Hebrews 4: 14-15 confirms that Jesus is extremely well-qualified in this area, “ Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
There is no greater One to sympathize for us or empathize with us because whenever He is called upon, Jesus is there to help us. Whether as the man of Macedonia in Paul’s vision imploring him to “Come over into Macedonia, and help us” (Acts 16: 9), or the Caananite woman with the daughter being vexed with a devil who said “Lord, help me” (Matthew 15: 25) or the father of the demon-possessed child who, in his torment, begged Jesus to “have compassion on us, and help us” (Mark 9: 22) and then, through the tears of agony and brokenness, cried “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9: 24) It matters not what the circumstance or the situation is, we look past the difficulties of life and focus on God, trusting that whatever He does is for our good and He will take care of us. “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” (Psalm 46: 2-3)
We must believe that Jesus is ready, willing and able to come to our aid. “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour (help) them that are tempted.” (Hebrews 2: 17-18) And if we believe this with our whole heart then we have confidence in Him. “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” (1 John 5: 14-15)
And so beloved, for all the issues of life that we face, not only daily but minute-by-minute, there is only one place and to one person we can go to that we can find true relief. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4: 16)
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