Most people like to feel self-sufficient. We don’t want a lot of help from other people unless we really need it. We want to believe that we can take care of ourselves. This attitude of independence is understandable because it means that we take responsibility for our own lives. Good people do that; they take responsibility for their own. But we all know that there are times, especially as we get older, when we need help from others. It’s not easy to take sometimes, but it’s necessary. We hate to ask, but God teaches us humility.
There is one person from whom we all need help. He is always there for us. He really cares about our lives. That person is God. He comes to us when we ask, but he often comes to our aid when we don’t ask. God visits his people in their need. It is true that God visits us in the extraordinary events of our lives. We praise him that when we are in great need he is present! But it is in the most ordinary events of our lives that God shows up unexpectedly. He is always with us. God is able to care for us in every way. I want to share with you seven ways God is able to help us when we really need him.
God is able to save completely (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus is our high priest who intercedes for us by offering himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins. We cannot pay for our sins by any means available to us. We need someone else to come and pay for them. They stand between us and God. Jesus is able to pay for them as the perfect lamb of God. He is willing to do so because he loves the Father and he loves us. Our salvation is complete in Jesus. We have the assurance of his love and grace. The cross and the resurrection are the proof. God is able to save us completely!
God is able to supply every need (2 Corinthians 9:8). We all need so many things to make life work. God is able to supply them all. But the supply of God is not only for the needs of life, but more so for the needs of the ministry he has called us to do. God’s supply is his grace providing us all sufficiency in all things at all times, so that we may overflow in every good work. We never lack what we need to do what God calls us to do. God gives so that we can give to him and others for his glory.
God is able to help those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). We are all tempted in many ways at many times. Jesus was tempted, the Bible tells us, in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He who has experienced temptation and overcome it is able to help his people overcome their temptations. Temptation is a deep and daily problem we all face. We cannot defeat it on our own strength. Jesus is able to help. Jesus wants to help. When we carry the burden of our temptations to him he is able to provide sufficient strength to defeat them.
God is able to sustain us in weakness (Romans 14:4). Weaknesses of all kinds assail the believer every day. We like to see ourselves as strong, but our strength comes form the Lord. Others may judge us for our weaknesses, but our Lord will help us stand. The Bible tells us that his power is made perfect in our weaknesses because his grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). Recognizing our weaknesses and crying out to the Lord is the path to divine strength.
God is able to keep us from stumbling (Jude 24). We all are prone to stumble in our Christian walk. We battle the world, the flesh and the devil every day. Sin is a snare. False teachers are always present. We would stumble on our own. Thankfully, God is with us as we face these enemies of our faith. None of us would make it to the end of our lives with our faith intact without the grace of God. He has promised to bring us safely home to heaven.
God is able to do more than we can imagine (Ephesians 3:20). We all ask God for many things and he supplies all we need, but we hardly ask him for all he is willing to do for us in his plan. If we could dream big and ask God for unimaginable things for his kingdom, he would give them to us for his glory. Our problem is that we often see too small. Our God is a big God and does big things. As we join him on mission he calls us to see big things, ask big things and do big things by his grace and his power for his kingdom.
God is able to give us a resurrection (Philippians 3:21). The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the central truths in the Christian faith. It is our faith that when the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ returns he will transform our frail earthly bodies into a glorious resurrection body like his. We long for and look to that day. It will be a day that will transform our lives and our world eternally. Our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit will deliver us through every trial and temptation to that day. God is able! We can trust him!