Season 1, Episode 7: Where Does My Help Come From?

Where Does My Help Come From?

There's something so reassuring about a promise. If you remember some of your dating relationships in high school, you remember some of those crazy feelings that you had for somebody. In a lot of cases, your whole world would become about that person. Every thought you would think, every text you would send, you thought about seeing them being around them.

And you believed at the time against all odds that you would be the high school sweethearts that made it. Family and friends would say how unlikely it is, but you didn't care, you knew the way that you felt, and you probably had moments back then whenever you would promise that you would be with that person forever, that you would always like them.

In some Christian circles, couples would go as far as giving each other promise rings. It's engaging to be engaged at some point, but there's something comforting about a promise. When that person all the way back then promised to be with you to care about you, it felt like it took the uncertainty away that your deep down insecurity, that it would was quenched by the promise. But, there's a painful reality that can come with promises between people. If you've watched much TV, you can picture in your mind a girl crying about a breakup and laying face down in her bed because the person they were dating broke their heart and their promise. 

Unlike promises made between people that often get broken and can cause hurt and pain, when God makes a promise, He makes it forever. Not only does he make it forever, it will come to pass and it gives incredible hope. In the first half of the season, we looked at different aspects of hope. We talked about reasons we have anxiety and worry but then we shifted gears and talked about the power of God and the hope we have in who God is.

In the last episode, we talked about what a promise of God is. And so here we are, looking at the first of many promises that we're gonna talk about, and I believe it's one that's incredibly important and it's a constant reminder that we have a constant help. 

We Need Help Sometimes

No matter who you are, you need help, on occasion. We all strive work and we do our best in the world but sometimes it feels like we're fighting an uphill battle. If you're not fighting a battle right now, it's pretty likely that you will hear shortly. It's just a fact of life that we struggle and then we face good times, and then we turn around and we face difficult times again. And more than just fighting battles physically or financially or at work, as Christians, we can also be trying to fight to, to live a life for God and be also struggling with the flesh and the desire to do things that we know we shouldn't do. You can even be struggling with your mindset struggling, finding hope, or struggling to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But in all of these situations, no matter what it is that you're facing, you can find hope in the fact that we have a God who is a help to us. 

Rather than just give you vague ideas of problems that you may or may not be facing, I want to share with you just a quick story. It's a cool story because it turned out okay, but in the moment it was difficult. About a year ago now, my wife and I, we had just bought a house and whenever you buy a house, a lot of times you dip into your savings quite a bit and maybe you don't have as much as you would like to in that moment and that was the situation that we were in.

We ended up moving states just across state lines. We were faced with the potential of having to pay extra taxes on cars we had just bought, so the cars were still pretty valuable. And so we were doing our research online and we're trying to figure out how much we were gonna owe and we were concerned about it. And we ended up getting to the end of the bill and it was gonna be multiple thousands of dollars. And we were like, man, we might can pull that off, but we'll just be very much scraping by to try to make that happen and it's gonna be due in just a couple of months. And so those months went by, we were trying to save money, trying to pull everything together and we ended up doing a little bit more research. And then we went to the place to, to pay our taxes and to get our new tags. And we went up there and we talked to the talked to the lady and ended up finding out that this tax bill we were expecting that was multiple thousands of dollars was actually gonna be cut in half because of different tax laws and situation.

But this big bill we were worried about ended up being cut in half. And I tell you that because if you've ever faced a problem that you couldn't fix in the moment, you know how difficult a feeling that is. I remember whenever we started doing research on the computer to figure out how much we would owe in our taxes and that sinking feeling that we wouldn't have enough and there wasn't anything we could do about it. In that moment, we could change our budget, we could change some of the things that we were doing, but in that moment, we could not come up with money just on the spot. And so there was that deep sinking feeling of worry and anxiety about paying our taxes that while we were just a little bit tight on money. 

But whenever we faced that, one of the immediate things that we began to do was to pray about the situation. I remember driving into work and just praying and believing that God would open up another avenue. That God would help us to save the money and that God would allow us to be able to get this bill taken care of where it didn't put a ton of stress on our financial situation. Because even in worry in facing a big problem, we can take hope in the fact that our help comes from the Lord.

So maybe you face some kind of similar situation. Maybe it's something a little bit different, but I truly believe that every single one of us have faced some kind of worry or fear that it wouldn't work out. But whatever you're faced with that feeling, that sinking feeling in your chest, that worry about some kind of problem or situation that's come up in your life, you have two choices. In the story of our car taxes, we had two choices. We can lean into God or lean into our own strength. 

Scripture to Hold Onto

There's a verse in the Bible that feels similar to this feeling, I would think. And if you'll break this down with me, I think it's interesting to look at it from this perspective. In Psalm 121, David writes, "I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." If you go down a couple verses further, it says, "The Lord will keep you from all harm. You'll watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore."

For some reason, as I read the opening verses to this chapter, I can picture David walking through this vast desert. For miles and miles, all you can see is desert, and I imagine some mountains far off in the distance. They're so far off in the distance that they almost look like they're painted, like they don't really look like you could get to them. He's walking slowly one step at a time and he is got his staff in his hand and he's going and he's going and the sun is beating down on him, sweat is beating across his forehead and he is gotten down to the last drops of water in his canteen. And I imagine like in all the TV shows where they drink the last couple of drops and they shake it on the ground trying to get the last little bit out. He looks off in the distance and he can see where he's trying to go, but it's still a really long ways off. And he wonders to himself, "How in the world am I gonna get there? There's no way this is gonna happen. There's no way this is gonna work." And he is running outta strength, he's running outta motivation and he is worried. 

In a moment of prayerful focus on God, he glances to his left and he sees this mountain range, these big, tall mountains that are larger than life, and he thinks of how big God is. He's trying to work under his own strength. But in that moment, he's reminded and asked the question, "Where does my help come from?" He answers his own question. He says, "It only comes from the Lord. He's gonna protect me and watch over me. Nothing can touch me because I am His." In that moment, you can almost see David switch gears.

All of a sudden, he starts stepping a little bit faster. His staff starts moving a little quicker toward where he's going. The sun doesn't seem so hot anymore. The sweat, he doesn't even notice, it doesn't even bother him. And he completely stops worrying about the water, he's not even thinking about it anymore because he knows that God is gonna sustain him and get him where he's going.

Luckily, we don't go through a lot of physical deserts anymore, and hopefully if we do, we pack enough water that we don't have to worry about it. But the imagery is not that much different in our own lives. You've faced times when you've been alone, tired, worn down. Just like David in the story, whenever we face difficult situations, we can turn and we can be reminded that our help comes from the Lord. We don't do it on our own strength. We don't do it off of our own resources because nothing else can truly sustain us because we serve a God that owns a cattle on a thousand hills. We can sit there, we can trust that he's gonna sustain us and bring us through whatever situation it is. And so whenever you come to face a difficult problem in your life, I hope that you can turn to it and you can say, I know where my help comes from.

I wanna finish off this episode with a verse in Isaiah 41:10. It says, "Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." John Piper explains that this is one of his favorite verses, and one of the reasons that it is because this promise of God is in the first person and not a lot of them are. A lot of the promises of God are God will do this or God has done that, and those are good. Those are really great to lean on. But there's something really powerful about God speaking into your situation that you can. You can read this verse for yourself and you can read and hear the words of God saying, "I am with you. I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

I hope that even if you're not facing a problem in this moment that you can hang onto this promise. Keep it in your back pocket, and you can pull it out whenever you need it, that whenever you face a problem, you can remember the two things: my help comes from the Lord and fear not for I am with you. And so take those promises, keep them with you, and be reminded that whenever the world looks hopeless, whenever your situation looks hopeless, that God is with you and our help comes from him.