One of my most frequent prayers is ‘Help!’ It is also one of the most common prayers in the Bible. It is a prayer you can pray every day, in any and every situation. You can cry out to the Lord for help. God’s desire is for you to have a relationship with him that is real and from the heart.
Help in broken relationships. Rejection is always hurtful – especially when it comes from someone we love or someone very close to us. Broken relationships are painful – particularly when we feel we have been ‘dumped’ by a close friend. Yet there is one note of hope. The hope comes from the fact that, in the midst of all this, he chooses to start each day by crying out to God: ‘I call to you, O Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Perhaps today you’re struggling with a relationship: in your workplace, church, or with a close friend. However bad your situation may seem, there is always hope if you cry out to the Lord for help.
Help in the struggle with sin. Do you ever find yourself trapped in bad habits or sins that you want to break free from but find yourself unable to do so? Do you ever find yourself deciding that you will not do something and then doing it anyway? Paul writes, ‘I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise’. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge’. In the middle of describing this struggle with sin, Paul says, ‘I obviously need help!’ If someone is condemned for a crime, it is not the law that causes the penalty. Rather it is the crime. All the law does is to set the standard. We know that God’s law is holy, righteous and good. We know that it is spiritual Yet we find ourselves failing: ‘I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do’
The difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of becoming a Christian is not that before, you sinned, and that after, you are sinless. No – the difference is that before becoming a Christian, sin was in character; it did not really worry you or me. Whereas after becoming a Christian, it is utterly out of character; you do not want to do it. It causes you pain and regret when you do. Not so much because you have let yourself down – although there is that. But because you want to be pleasing Christ – and you have failed him. As Paul cries out for help he already knows the answer to the question, ‘“Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!’
Help for healing. God wants to bring healing to our lives. The people knew that if they truly returned to God, he would heal them. If you want God’s healing, you need to cry out to him from your heart. What is clear is that God is interested in the heart, not superficial action: ‘I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God’. He is concerned about a relationship with him that comes from the heart. You can receive healing and forgiveness from God for all the things you do wrong – but you need to cry out to him from your heart.
As Joyce Meyer writes, ‘Unless we receive a miracle, all healing is a process that takes time, especially emotional healing. Healing does not come easily and can be quite painful. Sometimes we have wounds that are still infected, and before we can be thoroughly healed, those wounds must be opened and the infection removed. Only God knows how to do this properly. As you seek God for the healing from your hurts, there are two main things you can do to facilitate the process: spend time with God in His Word and wait in His presence. I guarantee you will find healing there!’
Hosea 6:6
‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
