Help

I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.  The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.  The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.  The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.  The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever. 

(Psalm 121 NLT)

Have you been on a website and taken notice of the little question mark in the corner, or perhaps the "help" button they embed on their page? It is designed to launch you into some "commonly asked questions" so that you can better know how to use their webpage. It isn't uncommon for those pages to get tons of "hits" just because people want to get right to the page where they need to go to sort out an issue, find their desired item, etc. I have one of those movie viewing apps on my TV and laptop. It even "predicts" what I may want to watch since I viewed something similar the last time I viewed a movie on their site. It is the "recommended for you" kind of feature. Wouldn't it be great if we could just somehow hit the "help" button in scripture and it took us to the exact right place we needed to find the answer we were seeking, or even look up to the heavens and see something written across the skies that clarified the direction we were to take in life?

While not all of the scriptures just "fall into place" for us based upon our immediate need, if you really think about it, the times when you most needed the answer, didn't you somehow get to it without really knowing how you did? It is because we have the "built-in" help of the Holy Spirit in our lives, connecting our spirit with God's Spirit, helping to guide our lives and keep us on track with where we need to be headed. Did you realize his guidance and help is just as close by as that "help button" on that webpage? In fact, all you need to do is look up! His presence is all we need to rely upon for the next step we are about to take, or the toughest decisions we will have to deal with.

I brought the entirety of this psalm into our reading for today because it really reminds us how God's "help button" works in our lives. We can look tons and tons of places to find peace, but peace is found in a person, not in a place. We can research all matters of faith and belief, but the only faith that matters is that which is given to us that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and trust in him to redeem us of our sin. You see, we don't walk without help, nor do we stand still or stand strong without his guidance right there with us. It is God who is watching over our lives - in so doing, we are kept from that which will bring harm to us. It is like our life gets "bumpers" - we might "tap into" something a little, but we bounce back because those "bumpers" of his presence and guidance help us avoid harm.

We come and go - but he is with us. We have a present and a future - and he is there in both. Herein is our trust rightly placed - in the presence and indwelling power of the living God within! Just sayin!