Asking God for help

Psalm 68:4-5 (NIV)

4 Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Here the psalmist calls out for others to sing praises to God who is Lord of all. The Lord is one to be extoled for His greatness and majesty.   We are to rejoice in song because of His good deeds. He is a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows and remains holy through all He does.

A friend of mine was speaking to me about his father. He said there were there things he learned over time about his father. His father worked hard; he was persistent; and he never asked for help. He said his father would start a job for someone and then kept at it until it was done. If there was something he found he couldn’t do by himself, he learned a way to get the job done without help.

Then my friend asked, which of those three things do you think I learned? His answer was the third item. He learned to do things without the help of anyone else. It is not always a bad trait, but it can be frustrating and difficult when help is needed and you don’t ask for it.

As I thought about my life, I also was one not to ask for any help. I grew up without a father and my single mom counted on me to get things done. Even when it seemed impossible I found a way to accomplish my tasks without asking for help. There was no one around but me, so I had to be my own helper.

Like my friend, I came to the conclusion it is a difficult task being your own helper. You are alone. You are often exhausted. Sometimes you become frustrated because the job gets difficult and you refuse to turn to anyone for help. You even push people away at times because you believe “I can do this alone.”

Then comes along your children and instead of teaching them how to do the difficult things, you step in as you always have done and take over the job without help. You fail to teach them what they need to do. You become impatient and say, “Here, let me just do it.” You really cheat your kids out of learning about life when you do that. I have to say I was guilty many times of doing that exact thing.

The Bible tells us God is a father to the fatherless and I know God was watching over me in my younger life. I know God was willing to help me, but I often did things myself just as I always did. Even when I needed help with the difficult things in life I would struggle along, while God was saying, “Why don’t you let me help you?”

The question for all of us today is, “Why won’t we let God help us?”  Are we too proud to ask? Do we just not want a relationship with someone who can help? Are we just stubborn and impatient? Whatever the reason may be take time to ask God to help you today through some of the difficult moments.