None of us are ever very good about asking for help. We like to think we are strong enough to do
it alone, or we are too proud to ask for help, or we feel guilty and “beholden”
to the person offering help.
I have learned, thanks to a wise man from my church, that
when we ask for help as well as when we accept help that is offered, we are
doing the OTHER person a favor. I was
preparing to have a knee surgery, and was embarrassed and overwhelmed by all of
the offers to deliver meals to our house.
I kept wanting to turn people down and say, “its okay, we’ll manage all
right…” Then Mr. W. told me that it was
my DUTY to accept the offered help.
What? Duty? That’s a pretty strong word!!! But, he further explained, that by turning
down their offer to help, I am taking away their opportunity to serve God. Perhaps God placed my needs upon their heart,
and they want to reach out and serve HIM by serving me. If I refuse their help, then I am taking away
their opportunity to obey the calling that HE placed on their heart! Wow…that really struck me…and I have lived by
that principle ever since. If someone
offers me help – perhaps it is His answer to one of my prayers, or perhaps it is God’s way
of lightening my load, or perhaps it is God’s way of encouraging spiritual
growth in the person offering to help me – so I’m learning to always accept
their help.
Additionally, as the old adage says, “it is far better to
give than to receive.” How good do YOU
feel when you find the perfect gift for someone, or when you help someone who
needs it? It feels GREAT. Who am I to take that wonderful feeling away
from someone by refusing to allow them to help me?
We have a tendency to pray for God to give us strength and
help us through difficult situations….and then we go right ahead and refuse the help that He sends
us!
It is very humbling to have to ask for help. It is not an easy thing to do….unless we are handing our
shopping list to God during our prayer time. For some reason, that seems easy enough for most of us.
He has provided us with brothers and sisters and family in
Christ Jesus in order to lift each other up in our times of need. This provides spiritual growth for the person
who must ask for help along with the person who is called to serve by
helping.
I am learning how to ask….I’m still not very good at it…but
I am working on it.
Out of great love, I have had friends tell me that they will
stand by me through whatever may come, and if we need ANYTHING, to please just
let them know….it is my greatest fear that I will need to take them up on their
offers…but what a great God we have…He has already answered my prayers for
strength and “getting through this somehow” by providing me with such loving
sisters in Christ.
I will just have to kick foolish pride out the door and
replace it with humility (a desired characteristic and Christian virtue), and
ASK for help when needed.
From the book Life
Without Limits by Nick Vujicic:
Helping Hands: There is one more people skill that is often
disdained or overlooked, but one I’m quite familiar with: the willingness and
the humility to ask for help when you need it.
Jesus, the son of God, rarely walked alone on this earth. He was usually in the company of one or more
of his disciples. You should never feel
that you have to go it alone. Asking for
help is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign
of strength. The Bible says, “Ask and it
will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened
to you. For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door shall be opened.
What profound truth.
Thank you, in advance, to my dear friends who have offered
assistance to our family….I know God has placed you in our lives for many, MANY
wonderful reasons. I love you. I love you dearly and thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving me back. Praise the Lord for His goodness in answering prayers that I haven’t yet spoken.
I pray I won’t be too proud to ask for help.
I pray I won’t be too proud to ask for help.
He knows my heart (and yours)…unspoken prayers lifted up by
the Holy Spirit…and answered by Almighty God, our Father.
Praise God!!
And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for
anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our
requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for.
