Help is on the Way!

I think I can speak for most of the women population (those of you who still grocery shop, that is) about coming home with grocery store bags stacked up in the backseat. We set our game plan for unpacking the car: the challenge to carry as many bags in our arms as possible. There is such a great feeling of accomplishment when we make just ONE trip to the kitchen counter! I just wonder what our neighbors think when they see our struggle to open the front door, kicking it open in victory, because our hands are FULL.

We all have moments when we feel stuck. Sometimes we just don’t have enough hands to carry everything, and we call for help. After we call, we wait. Seconds seem like minutes and minutes feel like hours, but we hold on and hope and pray that help is on its way.

If you are anything like me, we find a way to carry EVERYTHING from the car to the house after going shopping. I don’t know if it’s the challenge of it all or just eliminating the feeling of 100 trips back and forth from the car to the house. I’ll be honest though, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s when I call out to my husband, “MICAH, I need you!”

In life, we will have moments when we need help and will have to call someone to come to our side. It could be for something simple like holding a picture on the wall for a measurement or helping you get back up on your feet after an unexpected fall.  No matter what, it’s a known fact that help is something we all need from time to time, and some need more help than others. When hope seems lost, we must believe and know that our God is on the way.

Asking for help is NOT a sign of weakness.

In John 12:1-11 we read a story about Lazarus and the help that came for him when all hope seemed lost. I encourage you to go to this story in your Bible and read it.

Have you ever wondered how something will work out? I think all of us do that at some point in our lives.  We just don’t know the answers to the questions that race full speed in our minds. We may ask questions like:

WHEN is this going to happen?

WHY is this happening?

HOW will this work out? 

WHAT are You going to do to restore justice and truth?”

Whether we’ve asked just one or maybe all the above questions, we can look back at those moments now and see the faithfulness of God. God was our help. We might not have known the answers right away. We might have walked into the unknown, believing and trusting that God would make a way. We may have been a bit afraid, but we came out on the other side stronger than before.

Faith is built into our lives. Even when we don’t know the answer to the questions, we ask God. Words can be said, but action must happen. Our actions speak in how we walk out what it looks like to trust God and move in faith, even when things are unknown. It pleases the heart of God when our actions line up with what we believe.

If we say, God is our help, then our actions will follow. We are trusting that He will help. Remember: God’s help is always on TIME!

God always shows up on time, but are we spending time in His presence?

We read in John 12:1-11 that Jesus was invited over for dinner just 6 days before Passover to eat with Mary, Martha, their brother Lazarus, and a few extra guests. Jesus was enjoying the meal and Lazarus sitting at the table soaking up the company and presence of Jesus.

Later in the story, we read that Mary unselfishly pours her perfume on the feet of Jesus. WOW! What if Mary poured her perfume on Jesus’s feet because of the MIRACLE they received? Can you imagine the stench of Lazarus’s body after 4 days of being dead and buried in a tomb? It had to be unbearably awful. But, when Jesus came to the gravesite and told Lazarus to come out, Lazarus arose. To the shock of everyone present, Lazarus walked out ALIVE!

Suddenly, EVERYTHING changed. The stench of death was gone. Who could have imagined this miracle?

What if Mary spent intentional time with Jesus because she was so thankful and caught up in the wonder and awe of the love and compassion of what Jesus did for her and Martha?

 This caused me to wonder:

·       How do we respond to Jesus when we get the answer to a prayer or receive a miracle? 

·       What does it look like when we get that breakthrough we have been believing for?

·       Are we quick to invite Jesus and sit at His feet pouring out our love on Him?

Mary models a beautiful picture of sitting at Jesus’ feet and pouring her perfume on Him. That was so symbolic at that time.  The scent of Mary’s perfume changed the aroma in the room as she spent time with Jesus.  

When you spend time with Jesus, you will carry a beautiful fragrance.

Even in Bible stories like this one, we see that God is in the details. When we look up the meaning of Lazarus’s name, we find that his name means, God is my help (Greek). In Hebrew, it means, God will help. God is our help in times of trouble. God is our help in times of need. God is our help through ALL the battles that we face. God is our help in times of loss.

When hope seemed lost, help came for Lazarus.

We can be encouraged by this story because help is coming for you. His name is Jesus, and His help is ALWAYS on time. So don’t give up. Help is on the way. When we need help, we can REST and TRUST that God is ALWAYS on time.

-Bethany Marshall