WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL
DECEMBER 03, 2025
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 to some of the challenges that other people face in society. They face life’s challenges like others, but God is with them. And God expects that Christians will depend on Him for victory in life. Psalm 34:19 says that 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 the people of the world, who live independently of God. They depend on human strength, and the Bible says by strength no man shall prevail (1 Samuel 2:9b). The people of the world trust in human help, not God’s help. Yet the Bible says that no king is saved by the size of his army and no warrior escapes by his great strength; a horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength, it cannot save (Psalm 33:16-17).
Christians will always need help to meet physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual needs. But who will or do they depend on for help? If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, let Him be number one in your life. Let Him be the One you look to for help. 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).
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost in the sense of 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 non-believers. 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, including prayer, if you ask Him. “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 first asking for help from God. Ask God for help. He wants to help you. Psalm 118:8 says that 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 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.
The Bible records how the Israelites and other Bible characters cried out to God for help in adverse conditions, and God intervened. 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 precisely 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 continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act” (New Living Translation). God responded to the Israelites’ cry for help and 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 approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord” (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 cried to the Lord for help. “So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink” (Exodus 15:25a New Living Translation).
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 the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, the Lord raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz” (Judges 3:9 New Living Translation).
Similarly, when the Israelites were under the oppression of the Midianites for seven years, they cried to the Lord for help. The Lord raised for them a deliverer, 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. David said, “The waves of death overwhelmed me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I cried to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears” (2 Samuel 22:5-7 New Living Translation).
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 [a]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 that 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 that God helped King Uzziah of Judah against the Philistines, the Arabians who lived in Gur Baal, and the Meunites. The Bible further says that his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvellously helped until he became strong (verse 15).
The writer of Psalm 94 says that 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, asked the LORD many times 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 must give your heart to Jesus now. Please 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 heart. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, and Bible-practising 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 God raised Him on the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I invite Jesus 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 must join a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, and Bible-practising church where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like a palm tree and grow like a 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 rely on worldly power or human resources instead of God’s help. I will not depend on the strength of a human being but on You, Father. Send me help and deliver me from my adverse 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 900 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).
T. O. Banso is the President of Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
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