God Wants to Help You

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 
My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”
Ps 121:1-2

Hi Beloved. I hope you are well. Wherever you may find yourself today, in this moment, I’m here to remind you that you have a helper who is not only able to help you, but is willing. God wants to help you. He desires to be your strength, your shield, your refuge, your everything. He has consistently proven this over and over again, and the Holy Spirit residing in us is evidence of His advocacy for us. He is for us. He is for you friend, believe it. Some weeks ago, I felt a push to study the context of a verse that kept stirring up in my heart. Whilst studying it, so many things lit up to me that I have been eager and excited to share with you. Today’s my chance! It’s Bible story time, and I pray that this blesses you as much as it blessed me in the mighty name of Jesus. Alright, let’s open up with the verse that reeled me in – our anchor verse for today;

”The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.“ [2 Chr‬ ‭16‬:‭9a‬ ‭NLT‬‬]

The verse above got my attention in a special way and I’ll tell you why. This is not a verse that talks about man looking for the help of God.. and there are many of those. This verse talks about our God, the creator of the entire universe, choosing to “go out of His way” in order search for people to help! I don’t know about you, but pondering on that verse, it amazes me. There is kindness and help that we as humans offer when pressured to do so. There are times when we inconvenience ourselves to help people because we simply cannot ignore their needs. In times like that, though we have done a ‘good’ thing, our motives may be more self-centred than we realize. Perhaps, we gave so that we don’t feel guilty. Perhaps, we helped so we do not disappoint people and earn a poor reputation. However, to go around looking for people to give to, help, and strengthen with no benefit to you is a different level of love and kindness. That’s the God kind of love – selfless. This is what is perfectly expressed in this verse- the Lord is not only looking in your home, city, town, state, country, etc to find people to help, He’s SEARCHING through out the ENTIRE EARTH to give to men who have the heart posture to receive.

I did a deeper dive into the context of this verse because I wondered what the story behind the utterance of this profound statement was, and the story was interesting to say the least, and it is loaded with lessons we can apply today. I strongly recommend that you take the time to read it for yourself(2 Chr 14-16) but for the purpose of today’s post, I will give a recap.

Story Time!

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There was a king of Judah called Asa who began to reign when His father, King Abijah, died. In the midst of a dynasty of kings recorded in 2 Chronicles who blatantly rebelled against God and His principles, the Bible records that King Asa “did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord his God“. Asa was different. He ruled with integrity and made it his mission to turn the hearts of the people ofJudah towards God by destroying idols and altars that had been set up to pagan gods. He commanded the people of Judah to seek God and obey His commands. As a result of his dedication and consecration to the Lord, God granted the entire kingdom peace for years. Matter of fact, scripture says that the Lord was giving him rest from his enemies. How beautiful. Simply put, Asa’s heart was right towards God. He ruled, leading the people to repentance, and the Lord rewarded Him with rest for it.

Some time after, an Ethiopian with a large army of a million men attacked Judah! Asa deployed his armies, then he did something very important. He cried out to the Lord saying “O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!“[2 Chr 14:11]. What is recorded after Asa’s plea is the defeat of the Ethiopian army by the hand of the Lord. God heard him, and helped him. Not only did the people of Judah stand victorious in battle, they left with a vast amount of plunder – there were camels, sheep and even goats that they confiscated from the Ethiopians. Translation: Asa won, and he won big because God fought for him. Stay with me now, we’re going somewhere significant with this, I promise. The story takes an unexpected twist, so hang on.

Now this part is a very important point to note because we will refer back to this – After the great victory, as Asa was returning from the battle, the Spirit of God came upon a man called Azariah who then went to Asa with a Word from the Lord. In essence, Azariah told Asa that the Lord will stay with him as long as Asa stayed with Him, and that Asa will find the Lord when He seeks Him. He subsequently warned however, that if Asa abandons God, God will abandon Asa. This is interesting timing because this message came to Asa right after He had already put his trust in God and seen the reward of that, you would think Asa already knew to seek the Lord. Well, this message from God stirred up Asa’s heart even more, and he went ahead to establish even firmer reforms leading the people to enter covenant with the Lord promising to seek Him continually with all their heart, soul and mind. Asa was moved, and he led his people to a place of commitment and consecration to the Lord. Fast forward to years after enjoying peace in the land again, (by my calculations, after the Ethiopian war, Judah enjoyed about 25 years of peace) unrest struck again. This time, there was an invasion into Judah by the king of Israel and Asa’s response was very different.

This time around, Asa responded by desecrating the Lord’s temple – he removed the silver and gold from the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and the royal palace and he sent them to the king of Aram at the time(Ben-hadad) to contract his help. He used the silver and gold to make a treaty with Ben-hadad requiring that Aram will then break their treaty with Israel to leave them defenceless. This time, his first call for help was to his fellow man, and He used God’s treasures to get it. Ben-hadad, the king of Aram agreed to this treaty and rallied up the commanders of his army to attack Israel. Then God sent a seer named Hanani to Asa with a message reminding Asa of his previous confession when he defeated the Ethiopians. He said “Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you.“(2 Chr 16:8). These are the words that precede our anchor verse for today after which the Lord said to him “What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.“(v.9)

Considering the mercy and victory that Asa had experienced from the Lord previously, one might expect that he would be repentant, but he wasn’t. Instead, he became angry and directed his anger towards the messenger – Hanani, the seer – so much so that he threw him in prison. Not only that, but Asa began to oppress the very people he led into covenant with God. He had misdirected anger. The demise of Asa was tragic, and what sucked the most is that he died refusing to turn back to the Lord who was waiting to help him. In his 39th year as king, Asa developed a severe foot disease and still refused to turn to the Lord, instead he sought help only from the physicians…he turned to man yet again. He eventually died in his 41st year as king refusing to seek the Lord for help. At this point, it may now be obvious to you why the Lord sent Azariah to warn Asa at a seemingly unfitting time(in the midst of victory) to stay with Him. God knew that a time was coming that Asa would once again need His help, and he sent men to forewarn him about the danger of abandoning Him.

There are no shortage of lessons that I got from this story but I’ll share a few things that caught my attention;

• Starting from my previous statement about the forewarning, it was a reminder that there are times when God gives us a word or an instruction today that may seem non-applicable to our current circumstance, and that’s because they are safeguards for tomorrow. Stay with the Word God has given you, it has purpose even if you may not see it yet.
• Just like Asa, it is very possible to lead people into truth and still disqualify yourself. It reminds me of Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 9:27 (“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”). This is why it is important to not only study the Word and listen to God, but to meditate on His Word. You must be intentional to ensure the Word goes from your head(knowledge), down into your heart(conviction and revelation resulting in a heart posture change), and out through your hands(putting into practice what you’ve received). Head to Heart to Hands
• This story also emphasized to me the need to remember. Forgetfulness was a major factor that caused the Israelites to continually rebel against God in the old testament and the same applied to Asa. Asa knew better. He had experienced firsthand what it means to be helped by God, but it appears he forgot. We must make it a practice to cast our minds backs and revisit the revelations the Lord has given us. Journal, set up altars, document your story, do the necessary to not forget what God has said to you, and done for you.
• Another lesson that beamed in this story is the need to repent. God responds to repentance! You have not gone too far. Asa had opportunity after opportunity to return to the Lord after his error but he continued going down the wrong path. Jer 8:4 is a scripture that immediately comes to mind buttressing this point – “This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back? Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path? It’s not too late to repent.
• Finally, one thing that Asa did that was not pleasing to God was his immediate reliance on men for help. I do not believe there is anything wrong with receiving help through men but our primary source must be God. Men are resources through which God provides. One of Asa’s faults was that he resorted to men without consulting God. There are several verses that show God’s stance on that, some of which I will highlight at the end of today’s post. Suffice to say, trusting in men will always be unreliable. Let your alliances be directed by the Spirit of God.

There are many things that hinder us from receiving God’s help. It may be condemnation, shame, pride, ego, timidity, or maybe even doubt. Asa’s story is a prime example of a man that missed out on the help of God because he succumbed to pride. God was waiting on Him to ask just like He’s waiting on you and I. Will you call out and let the Lord answer? Or will you choose to live well beneath your privilege? We both know what the better option is.

Use your advantage friend. If you fell off, repent, He is waiting for you. God is a very present help in times of need. David was a man helped by God. I am a woman helped by God, but it won’t stop there, I will continue to be a woman helped by God till the very end because I will not hesitate to call on my helper, so help me God. I encourage you to do the same. The help that you need is waiting on you to access it. Let God help you, it’ll surprise you just how much you’ve been missing out on. The Holy Spirit, our advocate, is called our helper for just that reason.

I hope and pray today’s post blessed you. Don’t forget to read the scripture reference for yourself. I’ve also added more references below for your meditation.
I love you. God loves you immensely, and immeasurable more 💕

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More Scripture references

“You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help.”
[Isaiah 30:1-2]

“What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” [Isaiah 31:1]

“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” [Ps 46:1]

“Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.” [Ps 146:3]

“Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” [Ps 118:7-9]

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.” [Jer 17:5]

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” [Jer 2:13]

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” [Prov 3:5]

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