WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL
DECEMBER 3, 2021
TOPIC: ASK THE LORD FOR HELP
BY T. O. BANSO
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” (Isaiah 31:1 New King James Version).
Christians are not immune from some of the challenges that other people face in society. The difference is that they are not alone as they face the challenges of life. God is with them. And God expects that the Christian will depend on Him for victories in life. Psalm 34:19 says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
However, if the Lord will deliver a Christian, he must not have the mindset of people of the world who live their lives independently of God. They depend on human strength and the Bible says by strength no man shall prevail (1 Samuel 2:9b). They trust in human help, not God’s help. Yet the Bible says no king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength (Psalm 33:16-17).
Christians will always need help to meet physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual needs. But the question is who do they depend on for help? If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, let Him be, practically, number one in your life. Let Him be the One you look to for help. Don’t relegate Him to the background. Don’t neglect Him or set Him aside as you face the challenges of life.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit after He had ascended to heaven to help those who believe in Him. While He was on the earth, He had promised, “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 New King James Version). Â
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost in the sense of an apparition. He is a Person, a member of the Godhead. He is here to help you as a child of God. He is your advantage over nonbelievers. Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7 New King James Version). The Holy Spirit is your advantage. Don’t neglect Him. Fellowship with Him. Talk with Him and ask for help where you need it.
Jesus said further in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (New King James version). The Holy Spirit is Your Helper. Ask for His help. It is foolish to need help but fail to ask the right person who is available to help.
The Holy Spirit will help you in every area of your life if you ask Him. This includes helping you in prayer. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27 New King James Version).
Ask the Holy Spirit for help. Ask the Lord for help. You are different from sinners who are without Christ, have no hope, and are without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). You don’t belong to yourself but to God who bought you with a high price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He is interested in you and mindful of you. Don’t seek help from human beings without asking for help from God. Ask God for help. He wants to help you. Psalm 118:8 says it is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
King Asa of Judah died of foot disease because he didn’t seek the help of the LORD. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa had a foot disease. But even when the disease became life-threatening, he did not seek the LORD’s help but sought help only from his physicians. He died in the forty-first year of his reign (2 Chronicles 16:12-13).
God said, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” (Isaiah 31:1 New King James Version).
Verse 3 of this passage says, “Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, both he who helps will fall, and he who is helped will fall down; they all will perish together” (New King James Version). The Egyptians were not infallible. Like all mortals, their breath was in their nostrils. They had limitations. In Exodus, the Bible records how Pharaoh’s army drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:26-28; 15:4). It is better to trust the unlimited God for help than human beings who have limitations.
Each time God’s people in the Bible were in negative circumstances, they cried to the Lord. That means they cried to Him for help and God intervened in their situations. The psalmist writes in Psalm 119:145-147, “I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O LORD! I will keep Your statutes. I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies. I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word” (New King James Version).
The prophet Isaiah prayed in Isaiah 64:1-2, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence — As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil — To make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!” (New King James Version).
When you cry to the Lord for help, He will answer you but it may not be exactly in the way you expect because he knows what is best for you in every situation. But never allow yourself to be overwhelmed, weakened, or defeated by life’s challenges as if help is not available to you in God. Or as if you don’t have an advantage in the Holy Spirit.
Exodus 2:23-25 says, “Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites still groaned beneath their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their pleas for deliverance rose up to God. God heard their cries and remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the Israelites and felt deep concern for their welfare” (New Living Translation). God responded to the cry of the Israelites for help and He sent Moses to deliver them. Ask the Lord for help.
After the Israelites had left Egypt, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds and Pharaoh sent the Egyptian army to bring them back. “As Pharaoh and his army approached, the people of Israel could see them in the distance, marching toward them. The people began to panic, and they cried out to the LORD for help” (Exodus 14:10 New Living Translation). The people also complained to Moses and Moses cried to God. God assured them of deliverance and He delivered them. Their enemies perished in the Red Sea. This happened because the Israelites cried to the Lord for help. Ask the Lord for help.
When the Israelites got to the bitter water of Marah, Moses also cried to the Lord for help. “So Moses cried out to the LORD for help, and the LORD showed him a branch. Moses took the branch and threw it into the water. This made the water good to drink” (Exodus 15:25 New Living Translation).Â
Furthermore, in the days of the judges, God handed over the Israelites to King Cushan-Rishathaim of Mesopotamia
or Aram-naharaim because of their idolatry and they were his subject for eight years, “But when Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz” (Judges 3:9 New Living Translation).Â
Similarly, when the Israelites were under the oppression of the Midianites for seven years, they cried to the Lord for help and the Lord raised a deliverer for them, Gideon, who rescued the nation (Judges 6).
Put your trust in the Lord. Ask for His help. He will help you in the way He considers best to Him. David said, “The waves of death surrounded me; the floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death itself stared me in the face. But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I called to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears” (2 Samuel 22:5-7 New Living Translation).Â
Talking about the nations that surrounded him, David also said, “They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. You pushed me violently, that I might fall, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:12-14 New King James version). Also, the writer of Psalm 116 says, “The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me” (Verse 6 King James Version).
A tragedy occurred during David’s first attempt to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem, which aborted the mission. But when David went back to bring the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David the proper way, the mission was successful. 1 Chronicles 15:26 says when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they offered seven bulls and seven rams.
2 Chronicles 26:7 says of King Uzziah of Judah that God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabians who lived in Gur Baal, and the Meunites. The Bible goes ahead to say that his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong (verse 15).
The writer of Psalm 94 says unless the LORD had been his help, his soul would soon have settled in silence (verse 17). In other words, he would soon have died. Ask the Lord for help. There are times the help of man is vain or useless (Psalms 60:11; 108:12).
Ask the Lord to help you. David, in his psalms many times, asked the LORD to help him. He even asked Him to make haste or hasten to help him! (Psalms 22:19; 38:22; 40:13; 70:1). Also, the writer of Psalm 71 cried to God to make haste to help him (verse 12).
Make sure you’re obedient to God. Obey the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Pray to God Ask Him for help. I cannot say how He will help you but He will. Your help will come from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth (Psalm 121:2).
TAKE ACTION!
If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps: *Admit that you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life – your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.
Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto You today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and resurrected the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.
I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.
PRAYER POINTS: Father, I will not go down to Egypt for help or rely on horses, chariots, or horsemen. I will not depend on the strength of a human being; I will depend on You. Send me help from heaven and deliver me from my negative condition. Holy Spirit, You are my Helper, help me in every area of my weakness. Help me against my enemies. Father, make haste to help me.
(For over 600 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).
T. O. Banso is the President, Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
WhatsApp No: +2349081295947
Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
cedarministryng@gmail.com
Website: www.cedarministry.org
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