January 9 – No Disgrace, No Shame

“ For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.” Isaiah 50:7 (NASB)

When once we decide that we will no longer fight the efforts of God to help us by attempting to make our life a DIY project, we will find help from the Lord GOD. When we try to do it ourselves, what happens is that our failures will eventually bring us to shame. It is a shameful thing, a disgraceful action to reject the help of God. If we think we can manage any single small part of our lives we should certainly be ashamed of ourselves because our shame will be known by all when the day of visitation is here. Setting our face like flint means we take a course that we purpose to not waver from. That’s a resolution worth making, don’t you think? Not only Isaiah talked about this, listen now to what the apostle Peter wrote to us. “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”*

197

* 1 Peter 4:16-17 (ESV)

May 24 – Reaching For Help

“For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”” Isaiah 41:13 (ESV)

From the prophet Isaiah we have a promise today that should give us comfort and encouragement. Isaiah often wrote and spoke of how God cares for us. God has not changed. God wanted His people then to trust Him and that is still His desire for us, his people, today.  People needed God's help then and you and I need His help today. How wonderful to hear from our verse these words, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” That is God saying to us that He will help us. God also promises to take hold of our right hand. Just as we hold each other's hands to steady one another or, just as we hold a child's hand to help them with many tasks they are learning and to keep them close to us and safe from sudden danger, so God does for us each day. As we reach out in faith, God will take our hand and will help us. Let's do that today, let God take hold of our right hand, or left, He knows what we need.

November 22 – With Us When We Pray

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 (NIV) 

One of the last promises Jesus made to His disciples was that he would send a helper. That promise is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit sent from God our Father. All who have believed in Jesus as their Savior, and we hope that this is true of you, have the Holy Spirit in their lives. In this verse today, God explains what is going on while we are praying. The Holy Spirit is helping us to pray by praying with us to our Heavenly Father. To start with, we really don't know in ourselves how we should pray. We do know that if we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us He will impress on our hearts things to pray for and even how to pray. As we pray we can trust the Spirit to pray with us and we can depend on Him. We can also trust that God will hear and answer our prayer. 

October 15 – Trust Brings Help

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7 (NIV)

The words in this verse today which are especially attractive to us are the words, “my heart trusts in him and he helps me.” For those who have trusted in the Lord can agree with these words. We may have needed help in many different situations in our lives and have then trusted God for help and He has provided what we need. We can remember how at challenging times we have sensed a change and we believe that God has helped us. When we need strength and protection of this sort it comes to us from God, not from anything we can generate on our own. Let's be sure that we acknowledge God as our source of help and give Him joyful thanksgiving and praise.