Ask What You Can Do For God Series

Sunday AM January 6, 2019

Like me, many of you are now are have been involved in a trial that almost over-whelmed you. Satan would fill you with fear that you just can’t make it I just can’t carry on, many have felt the same way but with hope in our heart we must continue to walk on. The only way to get through anything is to keep walking, you’ll get through this dark time.

We fear that the depression will never life, the yelling will never stop, and will the pain never let up. We may wonder, will this gray sky ever brighten? Will this load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Satan would have some to believe that they are predestined for failure. We may throw up both hands and scream, “will we ever get out of this pit?” YES, YES!!! Deliverance is to the Bible what birth is to a pregnant woman.

Deliverance: out of the lion’s den for Daniel…the prison for Peter…the whale’s belly for Jonah…the storm for the disciples…disease for the lepers…even the grave for Lazarus and the shackles for Paul and Silas.

God carries us through stuff: the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground…through the wilderness…through the valley of the shadow of death. We are told in Isa 43:2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

It won’t be painless. You may have not wept your final tear. You may not have felt your last pain. You may not have experienced your last broken heart. Your unhappy marriage will not likely become happy in a heartbeat. God does not guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength, not in this life. But He did promise not to put more on us that we can bear. Sometimes God takes His time as He did with Joseph. It was at least twenty years from the time that his brother sold him into slavery until he saw them again and two more years before he saw his father who he loves so dearly.

We see Satan’s tricks and ploys. God sees Satan tripped and foiled. We represent a challenge to Satan’s plan. You carry something of God within you. Something noble and holy, something your family needs, something your friends need and something even the world needs. What is it, wisdom, kindness, mercy, confronting, compassion, love and skills. If Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. What Satan intends for evil, God will turn it around and make it good it we faint not. The story of Joseph is in the Bible for this reason: to teach us to trust God and TRUMP evil.

For years and years probably day upon days a great many of us have called out to God, Lord help me.

When we hear the story of David and Goliath most likely we think, that was all God. In one way, it was all God. But God didn’t just appear when David yield at Goliath. God started preparing for this scene long before. Actually God wanted someone to help Him so he chose a kid who was just freshly anointed to be King over Israel but was still tending sheep as though the anointing had very little effect on him. David was still a shepherd boy. In the course of caring for his sheep he had to learn to use a sling shot in order to protect his most valuable ascent. So he practice and practice and became very efficient being able to hit and kill the wild animals that were trying to devour his sheep. God gave David the skill but David had to develop what God had given him.

David had no idea that the day would soon come that he would be called upon to bring victory to a lost cause and save a defeated army but would save the nation of Israel. True enough God directed the stone but it was David using his skill that he had develop using a simple homemade sling shot that slung the stone that God directed to the only exposed spot that would kill Goliath. David actually helped God.

I think it was last Tuesday morning as I started to pray and as usual, first and foremost, the first thing that came from my mind and out of mouth, over my lips into my ears, back to my mind, the origin of the thought was, “Lord help me!”. Repetitiously, repeating the same phrase several times. Then a phrase coined by John Kennedy, President of the United States entered my mind: “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask, what I can do for my country.” Then for a few seconds there was silence. Then I heard myself say out loud, “Lord what can I do to help you.” I thought that was an odd question to ask God, the creator of the universe, the creator of all things.