"I Look For Someone To...Help Me...."

"I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought!  No one will help me.  Then I pray to You, O Lord." (Psalm 142, NLT)

Yesterday we lost an old friend and member of a local church I once pastored.  He was in his car, had chest pains, called 911.  They took him to the hospital, but to no avail.  He was a great guy who touched so many lives.  He was always an encouragement to me, even when I tried the patience of those around us.

Our text goes on inside so many people, in so many of life's circumstances.  The passing of one dear to us can bring some to utter these words of David, people feeling alone, abandoned by "friends," family, "unanswered" prayers, or as with David, surrounded by enemies.  But the, "No one will help me", is only defeated when we do what the David did, "Then I pray to You, O Lord."  The reason so many turn to "idols" is to find some kind of "tangible" person, thing, or whatever to ease the pain of loneliness and despair.

We have no reason for this, you know.  I sent a note to one of our friends who posted the note of our friends passing, and included in it the statement of Jesus, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.  And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."  But then I added the following question which Jesus asked Martha, the part of that passage which I do not usually include when quoting that great Promise of Jesus, but I thought it a ringing challenge to all of us, "Do you believe this?" 

And there we have it, my friend.  "Do you believe this?"  This question of our Lord Jesus Christ will stay with us the rest of our brief sojourn here on Planet Earth.  He will ask us this every day, perhaps ever hour and second.  Why?  Because life will continue to throw at us events which will challenge faith.  It started in the Garden, "Hath God said?"  And, it continues to this day.  Our response to, "Do you believe this?" will determine defeat or victory.  Choose victory with me.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that when there is a, "No one will help me", which may come our way, we always remember You, "A very Present Help...."  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2