A Light for My Path

The Our Daily Bread devotional for this past Tuesday was called “Asking for God’s Help.” The author talked about how when she was young, she felt like she shouldn’t ask for God’s help for small things. It felt petty and selfish. There were lots of people with big problems that needed God’s attention.

I have felt that way, too. Even as an adult. There have been times when I was completely overwhelmed by life circumstances: a divorce, an over-drawn bank account, the loss of a job. There have also been times when I was brought to my knees by grief, especially the death of my younger daughter. I desperately needed God’s help during those situations. And I asked Him for it.

But for relatively minor problems and issues, I should be self-sufficient. After all God has made me a strong, practical person. He expects me to figure out some things for myself.

Right?

I mean, the examples in the Bible of God responding to cries for help are pretty dramatic. He parted the Red Sea and the Jordan river. He supplied manna from Heaven to the Israelites on their journey to the promised land. Jesus raised people from the dead and healed people who had been blind or lame from birth. These are “big deal” miraculous acts. Those people were in dire straits.

But we also see small acts done by God. When Elijah was exhausted and went to sleep under a bush, an angel gave him a cake and a jar of water. Jesus had a conversation with a woman drawing water from a well. He told her he knew what kind of life she had lived and to stop living sinfully. That’s all. But it saved her life. She had a brief conversation with the Son of God, and she walked away a changed person.

Some of the disciples had been out fishing on a lake all day and hadn’t caught anything. Well, that’s how it goes some days, right? Just part of the job of being a fisherman. Jesus might have told them to hurry up and come with him. He had a lot of work in store for them. Instead, He told them to lower their net one more time and it came up so full of fish it almost swamped their boat.

So why do I feel like I’m bothering God when I ask him for help with something small? When I am trying to think of something to write for my next blog post. When I’m on my way to an appointment and traffic is backed up and I might be late. When I hate the number on the scale but can’t seem to stick with my weight-loss program.

God is not limited in His ability to respond to any and everything we bring to Him. He is infinite and eternal. He doesn’t run out of hours in the day to accomplish things like we do. He is all-seeing, all-hearing, and all-able. We frail humans cannot comprehend God’s limitlessness. So, when we limit what we bring to Him, we are limiting what we can receive from Him.

He’s waiting to help. Just ask Him.

---

Laura