“Ask”

"Ask"   

    Whenever our eldest daughter Marie travels with us, she serves as the family navigator.  She possesses a good sense of direction, skillfully uses her GPS, reads maps well, and doesn't mind asking for help from others when all else fails.  I'm grateful for each of these qualities in Marie, particularly the latter point of willingness to humbly seek aid as necessary.

    "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help" (Psalm 33:20).

   Marie finds that most people are more than willing to be of service to others in helping to find destinations.  Certainly this reflects the heart of the true Source of all help.  Our Heavenly Father loves to come to the aid of His trusting children in Christ.  He frequently does so without our asking.  Indeed, we may one day look back on this lifetime in the awareness of innumerable provisions for needs we never even knew existed, or protections from dangers we never saw because the Lord delivered us so quickly.  However, God withholds some aspects of His good grace until we make request of His help.  "Ye have not because ye ask not" (James 4:2).  This constitutes real relationship and fellowship between Benefactor and beneficiary.  We must be aware enough, knowledgable enough, humble enough, and expectant enough to seek our Lord's help.  Thus, we must keep prayerfully near to the heart of God as revealed in His Word in order to remember that help from Above always exists.  Our Father desires to answer our requests far more than we desire to ask them.  "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice" (Psalm 63:7).

   The more the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit illuminate us regarding the Lord's willingness and ability to help, the more likely we are to seek His grace not merely in a general sense, but rather in specific aspects of our life and being.  Are there matters of need, difficulty, perplexity, or problem for which we have not consciously and decisively sought the help of God?  Trials may continue because of our failure to ask for His aid.  Of course, some challenges seem to linger even if we do seek the Lord because His provision for need sometimes graces us in a different manner than we expect.  Of this we can be sure: God helps all who seek Him with a humble, trusting heart in the Lord Jesus.  He does so in accordance with His wisdom and definition of our need.  This may challenge our understanding and ability to see His aid.  But He always helps those who ask in accordance with the parameters of grace and faith He sets forth in His Word.  Always…

"For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed."

(Isaiah 50:7)

"He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded." 

(I Peter 2:6)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

(Titus 3:1-2)