Stop Asking for Help

My pastor gave me a book to read the other day. I love books and I have more than I will get to in the next five years, but when your pastor gives you a book and encourages you to read it, it moves to the top of the stack, right?

 So this is it: The Green Letters by Miles Stanford. I don't want to say it was a good book. I don't want to say I enjoyed it. Because here's my honest assessment: it smacked me in the face with TRUTH. Tons of it. I wish you could see all the pages, with my underlining, smiley faces, exclamation marks, and arrows. It's a mess. 

 Chapter 16, entitled "Help," has rocked my world and been the focus of my mind ever since I read it. After just the first sentence, I wrote this: "Yikes. This is something I've never heard." 

 So what was this earth-shattering truth that you're dying to hear? [Warning: your jaw is about to hit the floor.]

 "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." 

 ! ! !

 (If you're not shaking right now, you need to stop and read that quote again.)

 I mean, does that sound like a book your pastor would tell you to read?!?! Let me keep going:

 "Immaturity considers the Lord Jesus a Helper. Maturity knows Him to be Life itself. J.E. Conant wrote, 'Christian living is not our living with Christ's help, it is Christ living His life in us. Therefore that portion of our lives that is not His living is not Christian living...'"

 I know. Mind blown.

 One more quote from Chapter 16: "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. We plead for Him to speak when He has already spoken and is at that very moment speaking. We ask Him to come when He is already present and waiting for us to recognize Him. We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing Him by our doubts." --A.W. Tozer.

 I have asked God to help me countless times. "Help me love." "Help me be victorious." "Help me forgive." "Help me think." "Help me remember." "Help me be wise."

 This book--and ultimately, God's Word--tells me this:

 "I already gave you all you need."
He did. I looked it up: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3, italics mine).

 God's power is promised to us when we know Christ as Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 1:18). He has also given us every blessing (Ephesians 1:3). Our salvation is complete through faith; we don't need to go through college-level Bible classes to receive God's power and blessings.

 We have them through Jesus. NOW.

 So why don't we realize it? Why do we feel so un-powerful?

 Oh, this is where it hurts. Sometimes we don't get what is ours because we don't ask (James 4:3) or because we ask with the wrong motives (James 4:4). Or because we are not walking in obedience to God and therefore the Spirit is not living in us (Acts 5:32). Sometimes we're so focused on our plans and our will that we're not seeking God's perfect plan (Jeremiah 29:11-14) and therefore think He doesn't hear us. Sometimes we're not still (Psalm 46:10) and sometimes we're so far from His Word we don't hear Him speak (Deut. 30:14).

 It's on us if we don't have what we've been promised.

 Now let me pause here and clarify just a little bit: I am not saying that if we live according to God's laws we get everything we ask for. Nope. Not at all. But I am saying that we can have everything promised to us in Scripture when we believe Jesus is Lord because we know Him through His word. (This link has just a few. I dare you to find more.)

 So I ask you these things:
Do you know Him?
Is He your Lord?
Do you live out your faith?
Are you seeking His will?

 Then every promise in Scripture is yours. He did not promise success in every human endeavor. He didn't promise you'd get the guy you are just SURE you need right now. He didn't promise you'd keep your scholarship or get over your disease or provide all the money you need.

 But He promised to be with you. 
It's all you need.

 (Here's a video with my favorite song as a reminder.)
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com



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