“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.'” ~ Billy Graham
One thing about our human nature is that it tends to gravitate toward things that can gratify rather than things that are negative. No one likes to feel hurt or sad or lonely or anxious. We all want to feel loved and cared for and accepted and understood. Many times, we opt for the easy reward rather than for the path that will take a lot of work.
Graham reminds us that the Christian life does not supply that constant high that we tend to seek. There are many times in our faith lives that we will find ourselves brought low, sometimes incredibly low, as we seek to follow the Lord. For some, this just encourages them to strive harder. For others, this can be a “deal breaker.”
Because of the lows and of the many challenges that are involved in faithful discipleship, there are those who have decided that they are not going to expend their energy following the Lord. Instead, they focus upon the lures of the world that promise success or happiness or gratification of all sorts. All of us know that whatever the world has to offer cannot endure.
We are fragile, mortal people living in a fragile world that will come to an end one day even as we will come to an end in our own personal lives. All that the world had to offer at that point will be brought to ruin. Nothing that the world has to offer can ensure salvation. As we are fragile, mortal, temporal people, we would be better served by looking away from the lures of the world and looking toward the promises of God.
In order to accept those promises, we have to humble ourselves and learn what it means to ask for help and for forgiveness. We are human. We are mortal. We are temporal. We are fragile. We cannot do it on our own no matter how much we want to think we can. We all grapple with that reality.
My father was very stern and he pounded it into his boys that we were the ones responsible for everything that needed to be done. Asking for help was a sign of weakness. If something needed to be done, we had best learn how to do it on our own. There was no excuse for failure. As you can well imagine, this belief does not carry one very far in life.
Sooner or later, we have to ask for help. We cannot do it all. We are not supposed to do it all. God made us for one another and wants us to help one another. We should never be reluctant to seek out that help from others or from Him.
FAITH ACTION: Don’t be afraid to ask God or other people for help when you are in need of it.