Psalm 55:22, Psalm 23
All of us have had our times of suffering and hardship.
Someone has said, "Most people are up against it.
And when you strip away the masks they wear, you discover they have about all they can carry."
All of us are aware of that.
The life of quiet desperation is a common human predicament.
Young people struggle in a world where directions are not clear.
Parents wrestle with problems that defy human solution.
Older people are troubled over shattered dreams and the infirmities of age.
Business and professional lives are filled with bewildering complexities.
Problems are everywhere and many seem beyond our abilities to handle.
We have often heard the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves"
Most of us would agree with that.
Phrases such as: "God favors the army with the largest battalions, "
and "Faith without works is dead" are common expressions.
Sometimes, however, our insistence on the necessity for human effort leaves unemphasized
our need for divine assistance.
God not only helps those who help themselves, He also helps those who cannot help themselves.
There have been many times in our lives when we feel that we have gone as far as we can go
and have done all that we can do.
Then with prayerful hearts we look upward seeking strength beyond our own.
What hope do we have of finding that strength?
Here are three thoughts that will enable us to answer that question.
There Is The Biblical Assurance That God Will Come To Our Aid.
All through the Bible we find that promise.
Psalm 55:22: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you."
Psalm 23:4: " Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ...[God is] with me."
Jesus said, " Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it." [John 14:13]
Most of us have read these promises and have wondered if they are true.
Elton Trueblood has said, " If you live long enough in this world to look back,
you are going to see some things you cannot explain except through the providence of God."
That's true isn't it?
The impact of Jesus on human history, for instance, has no other explanation.
Every earthly force contrived to silence His voice.
But God's purpose was that Jesus live and carry out His mission.
Jesus still lives, and His kingdom covers the earth.
The persecution of the early church was designed to destroy the church.
Instead, the blood of martyrs became the seed of the church.
The Romans built roads to bring the world under their domination, but Christians used those same roads
to preach God's message of deliverance.
Paul said it so wonderfully -- God works in all things for good to them that love Him.
What many of us see in history we have also discovered personally.
Lincoln declared that he was often driven to his knees because he had no other place to go.
There he found a strength to carry him through some of the darkest hours of our history.
Many of us share that discovery.
There are moments in our lives when things appear hopeless, yet doors seem to open
and we find our way through.
Our skeptical friends would have us believe that these open doors are coincidences,
but those of us who have had such experiences remember Theodore Parker's observation:
" The more I pray, the more frequently these coincidences seem to happen."
God is ready and willing to help in every time of need!
The Prerequisite For God's Help Is Our Willingness To Receive It!
A church member prayed these telling words: " Father, we don't ask for your blessings,
just help us to walk where your blessings are."
What rare insight!
There is little reason to pray for the sun to shine on us, if we insist on living in the cellar.
God's help is always given to us, but we must be willing to receive it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote a book on prayer.
In that book he told about a father who had a wayward son.
The father could see that his son was headed for trouble and had tried to help him.
All his efforts were rejected.
Left with no alternative, the father stood by in pained silence as the boy stubbornly ran his course.
One day the boy came to the end.
With all options gone, the young man turned to his father for help.
His father declared, " I have always wanted to help you, but you wouldn't let me."
We must not miss the point!
The condition for God's help is surrender.
It is a willingness to accept God's help.
Only when we are willing to do things God's way, will we receive divine help to get us
through the problems and puzzles of life.
God's Help Often Comes To Us In Ways We Do Not Expect!
People who live in the sun belt shiver at the thought of winters where snow and ice are everywhere for weeks.
They wonder how people make it when they are snowed in for weeks, and endure subzero weather.
There is a story about a young man from the deep south who was drafted by the army.
In the middle of winter he was sent to a base in the far north.
After a week of a suffering the bone-chilling cold, he wrote home:
" I'm glad we didn't win the Civil War, we might have had to occupy this country permanently."
That statement was made in jest, but it does suggest that our blessings are often disguised.
We don't always recognize our victories, when we are dealing with defeat.
God may lead us in unlikely places to get us where we ought to be!
If you and I had been planning to bring a king into the world, we would never have planned
for Him to be born in a manger.
We would never have allowed his first visitors to be a band of lowly shepherds.
We now know that the very nature of Jesus' birth became the secret of His power.
"God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
Take a few moments to read the Book of Revelation.
You will discover a remarkable message that John wrote to those early Christians.
" Look," he wrote, "We are being persecuted. Pain and suffering are our lot.
But don't lose heart. We are going to win. Out of our sacrifices God is building His kingdom.
That kingdom will survive when the proud Roman Empire has crumbled into the dust."
How true that was!
God has a way of turning our failures and losses into victories!
Hardship may not be removed, but God will give us strength to bear and overcome.
The past cannot be undone, but God will use it to give us a new and victorious future.
The world may not be calm about us, but we can find peace even in the storm.
We may live under the threat of death, but God will use our physical death to bring us
into His very presence in glory.
There we will never die, and all our problems and sufferings will be over.
Our prayer should be:
" Father, sometimes we feel forsaken and lonely as we struggle with the events of life.
We deal with our problems and see no solutions.
We become confused and frustrated.
Yet, You have promised that You will never leave us and that Your strength will sustain us.
Lift our eyes beyond the shadows of this world and let us see the light of Your countenance.
Help us to remember that we are forever within Your keeping, and that we cannot drift
beyond Your loving care."
Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White