Everyday Step with Jesus

When in trouble, do we tend to look to those around us? Our own strength? God?….It is great to have people that we can go to when we need help because we actually need a community of support, such as a church or friends. However, our first resort should be to go to Jesus. This can be hard sometimes because when we are expecting an answer, or solution to our problem, we tend to want to hear a clear audible voice that tells us exactly what to do at the exact time that we want.  I have found that this is not how it works with Christ. Yes, He speaks to us, but He speaks to us in many different ways. Those ways can be through His word, prayer, revelation, His audible voice, a vision, a dream, through our experiences, through nature, through somebody else. If we keep our eyes open, we will realize that He is truly all around us. He will use anything and anyone to get His point across, it is up to us to receive it. How many times do we miss the help that He is offering because it is not in the way we are expecting? I know there have been times where I missed the help He was sending me, and I ended up way more frustrated than I needed to be. In other words, I end up making a storm in a cup of water when there is no need to because I have the One that calms the storm on my side. If you have found yourself in a similar situation, keep on reading…

Throughout the Psalms, when David was distressed and in trouble He recognized who his help came from:

I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. Psalms 121:1-5 NKJV 

This verse starts off “I will lift up my eyes to the hills”, this means that it takes US lifting our eyes up to the Lord and asking ourselves the same question David asked himself…answering that question and recognizing that our help comes from the Lord. David then proceeds to remind us about the greatness and power of our God. The Lord created heaven and earth. When we look around and see the beauty of nature we see how great and powerful our God is. When we look at the hills, at the ocean, at forests, at waterfalls…we stand in awe before the beauty of nature that our God created. We realize that there has to be something greater…our Creator. He created all these things and He created you and I. That same Creator that created all these beautiful things is the same God that helps us! He is a God that doesn’t sleep but watches over us, He is our keeper. Like David, we need to lift our eyes to the Lord and recognize that He is the one that helps us. 

He is such a great keeper that He actually has given us another Helper to abide in us, Jesus tells us:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16-18 NKJV

We have the Holy Spirit that abides in us, this is why His Word tells us multiple times that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5, Deut 31:6, 8, Joshua 1:5). He is with us, and if we abide in Him, He will abide in us (John 15:7). When we truly know our God, these verses aren’t merely words or verses that we recite, but they become alive in us. 

But what about when that help doesn’t come when we want it to come or in the way we want it?….

The Israelites had waited for a savior for so long…they knew the Scripture and they knew their help was coming, but when their help (Jesus) arrived they made the mistake of rejecting Him and not receiving Him (John 1:11).

The help they had been waiting for didn’t come in the way they expected, so they rejected the help…they rejected their redeemer. They had created an image in their head of what this Savior would do for them, and what that would look like. How many times do we do this ourselves? We lean on our own understanding. Walk on our own. Create an image of Christ in our heads that is not based on His word. We think that He owes us something, trying and trying to do things on our own terms only to end up more frustrated and overwhelmed. In doing so, we reject Him and miss the point….that Jesus already paid the price for each and everyone of us and that He has set us free from sin and death. Knowing Him and walking with Him doesn’t mean that everything will be peaches and roses. In fact, He calls us to suffer as He suffered (1 Peter 2:21). He is our example in everything, even in suffering. We don’t want to wait or trust, but His word tells us to wait and trust, not once…but multiple times. Even through the suffering, the waiting, and the process…Jesus tells us:

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NKJV

In other words, yes, you will go through things in this world, things that may seem unfair to you…but rest assured that you have the Victorious one on your side…because of Him, and through Him, we are more than conquerors. 

When we pray it doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem will go away or that it will change the situation, however, it should change US. How? By resting in the peace that He offers us, by trusting that once we bring the situation forth to Him, He will take care of it. He has already overcome this world and nothing goes unnoticed with our God. We need to remember that He is God, and He can see the bigger picture when we tend to focus on the details. He is our Father and He knows us. Therefore, He also knows what we need before we even ask Him, and like the good Father that He is, He knows what to give us and when to give it to us! This is the part that requires trust from our part and us remembering that He is a good God that will never leave us nor forsake us(even when it feels like it). He is our keeper, He looks out for us. 

Walking with Him means that we don’t have to be strong on our own and that we no longer have to carry the heavy load, but that we can rest in Him. He is our refuge and no matter what we go through or no matter what goes on around us, one thing stands true…He is our God and nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:37-39 NJKV). 

So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6 NJKV

If you are leaning on God to help you, there is nothing this world can do to you or take away from you because when we lose in this world, we actually gain in Christ (Phil. 3:7-8 NKJV).  Yes, there will be hard times, but we have a Helper. That Helper is nothing more and nothing less than the Creator of heaven and earth, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the great I am, our Keeper, Our Shepherd, the Light of the World, the true vine, the Bread of Life. He is enough for any trouble that we will face. Accept the help that He gives…go to Him first and keep your eyes opened for the help that He sends your way. I have learned that even when I go through hard times, there is almost always something to learn…there is a breakthrough that comes when we trust in the Lord even in the times when we don’t see what we were expecting. In the middle of your waiting for God, step back and lift your eyes to Him and the help He has sent you…not what you haven’t received. Our hope is not in the solution to our problems, but in Him.