We all want help with something. But we seldom like to ask for it.
We All Need Help
Imagine you are walking to your house from the grocery store. You’re carrying two bulging bags of groceries, arms aching while the bags you hold, threaten to rip and spill. Your friend sees you and offers to help you carry the load. Say no, and you stay uncomfortable and might drop your goods. Say yes, and you have to admit that you can’t do it yourself.
Receiving help takes humility—the humility to utter two words we try hard to avoid: I can’t.
We all need help with a lot of things. And maybe life would be a little sweeter if we could share our load with a friend.
As we look for someone to help us both with trivial tasks and soul-deep questions, we realize that there are many anxieties we carry with us that nobody can help with—from crises at work and school to cares at home. Except, there is one Person. He is the one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3 ESV). He can help. And he already has.
How God Has Helped Us
He saw your deepest need—to know God personally, to be free of selfishness, to be unshackled from regret and your past—and he said, “I will help you.” He, Jesus, bore God’s punishment for you as he carried to the cross every offense you have committed against God and neighbor. But receiving this favor from Jesus requires admitting you have sins that need carrying away.
Jesus let your sin and failures crush him, but he did not let them win. He rose from the grave, throwing off the power of sin and death from all who believe in him. Receiving the new life Jesus offers requires understanding you’re dead without him.
God daily carries the world. He sent his Son Jesus to earth to carry the sins of his children into the grave, and then carry his children out of it. Surely whatever is on your heart is not too heavy for Christ to carry. But it’s certainly too heavy for you. Would you humble yourself and say, “I can’t”? Tell God your cares, for he can handle them.
Having a Hard Time Handling Life?
God commands us in the Bible in 1 Peter 5:6-7 to humble ourselves. He tells us to assess our situation honestly—we have hurts we can’t handle, situations we can’t solve, needs we can’t meet. Yet we have a God who asks us, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14).
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV)
“Let me help,” he says. And when we say to God, “Please carry this,” we are also saying, “because I can’t.” This verse tells us that the One who upholds the universe not only can carry your anxieties, he wants to, because he cares for you. He can start right now, if you’ll just humble yourself and ask.