
Hebrews 13:6
The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
On Sunday afternoon out of the blue my seven year old son, Ben, said, “Mom, I remember my Bible verse from class today.” I was eager to hear. “TheLordismyhelperIwillnotbeafraid.” He says it fast I guess so he won’t get distracted and leave anything out. Thank you, Miss Dawn from New Song Christian Community for helping my kid hide God’s Word in his heart!
Today is the first day of school and we are using this Bible verse today. Mainly because I know since he memorized it that Ben can read it, and we are working very hard on reading right now. This passage also contains a semicolon which is fabulous to point out for Grammar. We’ll practice combining sentences using semicolons or its counterpart - conjunctions with commas. Lots of fun to be had there.
But mostly we’ll use this verse because I want to talk about it. There’s so many things in life that are quick to make a person anxious, upset, angry, or afraid. But notice when we have a helper for the situation the stress is extremely reduced or eliminated all together.
Recently, our family threw a big party to celebrate our parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. There was a lot to be done. I was collecting items from stores and friends for weeks, constantly making lists making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. The day before the party my daughter and I set up all the tables, chairs, and decorations and tried to make everything look nice. The day of the party we woke up early so we could get all the last preparations finished, set up all the food, plus I had to make sure that my four kids were groomed and looking nice for the party. It was hectic. But the great thing about that day was that my friend, Jaime, came and helped.
She set put the finishing touches on all the decorating. She picked up the huge cake and decorated it elegantly with flowers. She set up all the chaffing dishes for the food. She made the borrowed, giant, silver coffee thing work. She filled and refilled my fancy beverage dispensers. All these things needed to be done, and it was much easier having a helper so that it all didn’t fall on me. And everything she did was even nicer that what I would have done. I can’t imagine the pressure, frustration, and stress that would have ensued if I didn’t have such a wonderful helper.
One of the definitions for “help” in the dictionary includes: “contributing strength” and “to provide what is necessary to accomplish a task.” That’s Jaime. Her contributions were priceless to me even staying with me for hours after to clean everything up and pack up our stuff. I was not stressed out because she was there. Wonderful!
That is God to me everyday! Contributing strength. But do I always take him up on his help, or do I prefer to scramble around and get stressed trying to keep a bunch of proverbial plates spinning? That would be like trying to run that huge party all by myself. The Lord is my Helper. And with that will be the release of my fear, my stress, my anxiety because he is a Helper who really helps. And that kind of help is awesome!
Dear God,
I’m so glad to have a friend who saw my need and really bailed me out with tons of useful and precious help. And I thank you that YOU are my Helper. You are the Helper who sent me that helper, I know that’s for sure! And You are my help every day in every situation so much so that I do not have to have fear or stress or anxiety. You are working in my life all the time, providing what is necessary for me. Thank you. I love you and I love your help! And I pray in your Son’s name, amen.