A Ready Aid

Introduction:

Welcome my friend, 

It's good to arrive here today to spend this last day of the month with you, as we get on with another edition of this Friday weekly newsletter.

Through each one, we've shared truth in such a way that the love behind it has been felt, so that we can feel remorseful and inspired to embrace it, rather than become resentful from feeling judged by it. 

So, as we get on with this one, I hope that you open your heart to it just as much, aware that it's come from a place of genuine care.

After all, none of us can be perfect and we're all just trying our best, which is enough for a start. 

While truth may hurt, it sets free, because we're able to see life for what it actually is, not what we think it is or have been made to think it is, by family, society and the world we find ourselves in. 

Discussion:

Today's conversation concerns each one of us because we all need help.

Yet if you're the kind to think “Well, I don't think so because I get my things done”, well, you could still do it with some help.

Think of it, if you're efficient alone, it means having a similar powerhouse to call upon will get the work done in half the amount of time and with less effort from each person than it'd normally take one. 

To be real here, getting a helping hand never hurts.

Yet this is just when we look at it from the lens of productivity and work alone. 

Some of us need help with other things. 

From finance to health, from going through abuse in our relationships to facing victimization at work. 

From government policies that threaten to sink our businesses to international wars that displace armless citizens, we all need help with something little or small, inconsequential or more consequential. 

This is simply because life is a struggle no matter who you are and where you are.

So where do we run to when we need help?  

■ Where We Seek Help 

If a friend gives us some cash after sharing our financial struggles with them, it means that they've been of help to us in that situation. 

Yet if we have all that money and develop a terminal disease, it may not be of much help to us with regards saving our life. 

So for different times, what might be helpful in one circumstance may not be for the other, leaving us in sometimes desperate need for “many helpers”. 

For instance, some of us that feel lonely may find ourselves seeking help in trying to overload ourselves with work. 

This is self deceit. 

The human need for dependence and interconnectedness means that no one is an island and to be truly happy we need to genuinely love and be loved back. 

This makes it important for us to relate well with those around us rather than build emotional high walls that repel their love like bullets off a titanium gate. 

Another example is finding distraction in sex when every other aspect of our life seems to be falling apart.  

Many times, we can find support in intimate moments shared with others as we try to fight through some of our frustrations with work, business, and life in general. 

However, like others this is also not sustainable as we're left asking for more when all the sparks die out after a while. 

This is without considering the health risks this exposes us to and of course the financial implications as we waste our God given resources catering for lustful activities. 

What about drugs and alcohol?

These also provide temporary solutions before our problems go on to compound in due time. 

When we get high to forget our problems, it doesn't eliminate them from our lives. 

It just gives us an illusion of calm before the depression sets in. 

In all these we can see that the places we run to mostly don't offer us perfect solutions to our problems but sometimes leave us even wanting more. 

So where can we find all the help we seek? 

■ How We Find Help 

One of the greatest acts of kindness I ever received was from a classmate back in high school who helped me serve a punishment. 

How it worked, other students were not allowed to assist those serving theirs, else they could get punished themselves. 

However, mine was different because it was a tough one, since it was washing all the toilets. 

I was exempted from the condition of doing it alone because it was unexpected that someone would want to assist me. 

After all, folks were not going to that extent for even their best buddies. 

So to be honest, I was taken aback when this dude showed up to help me, knowing that I wouldn't even do the same for him or anyone else at the time. 

Which made me try to dissuade him from going through this underserved stress and shame even if I needed the help. 

Does this sound familiar?

Well, maybe that's because it's exactly what we do when we reject God. 

See friend, although clean and without offense, God died for our sins so that in accepting this we invite him into our lives to help us. 

Truly, it's only love that motivates someone to avail themselves selflessly and sacrificially to be there for another, sharing in their suffering and dejection when the easier thing is to look away. 

Yet foolishly we reject this love and help throwing it back to his face while struggling with things he could have guided us through. 

What would you have thought of me, if I had pushed my classmate away, cursing him out instead? 

■ Why We Reject Help 

Most of us will accept help unless we feel too good for it or undeserving of it. 

Many of us can't get ourselves to accept the “weakness” of relying on God when we can go out there and make things happen. 

Yet how many things are out of our control? 

In the same vein, some of us reject this help because of what it'll require of us, since we're not willing to give up old habits and lifestyle. 

We want the help but want it to an extent because we don't want it to get in the way of our pleasures. 

This is unwise. 

God's love bears with and saves us from the consequences of our actions so it's only wise to follow his lead in order to stay out of trouble.  

Summary: 

The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming and depressing and life will test us with all these. 

From the death of a loved one to going through a difficult relationship break up, many things happen that leave us drained emotionally, physically, financially or otherwise so that we need someone to lean on. 

What a privilege it is to have family and friends who try their best to come through for us in these times despite their own limitations. 

Yet the biggest one of all, is to have the sovereign God of the universe who isn't limited by time, distance or any factor whatsoever, be so eager to help us out if we call on him. 

All we need is a remorseful and willing heart and he'll move in with us and make it his home; before “renovating” it to match his high standards through our daily inner work of transformation and sanctification, gradually, for the rest of our lives. 

You see my friend, every weekend we've found different ways of discussing the same theme of God's salvation and that's because the essence of all our stay here is to prepare us for eternity. 

This message will neither be outdated nor will it ever be overemphasized. 

So embrace God, our ever present help in times of trouble; in this world full of troubles.

Master Apprentice.

www.x.com/truekingmaker