God As Our Supernatural Helper And Keeper
“It is easy to forget that everyone will hit a stretch when they cannot get their work done due to conditions beyond their control,†Ed said. “It sure seems that it happens too often to farmers like me,†he added.
I agree with Ed that the weather can halt a farmer’s harvest. Weather can also stress long-distance truckers with hazardous road conditions, causing delays, and possible road closures. People may say time is money, but time can also mean wrestling with an interval of time, that has you pinned to the mat. Waiting doesn’t always come with an eventual win. Life can seem to have more than its share of losses.
When you are pinned to the mat in situations you cannot change, how will you throw your problems off? — Some issues, like the weather or other people, maybe beyond our ability to change them. When difficulties are more significant than our capacity to fix them, we may call for help. Sometimes others can help us over delays and setbacks. The assistance given may also make things worse. Who do people call for help when problems seem insurmountable?
Christians speak of their help coming from the Lord. Life can beat anyone down so that there seems no more they can give or do. When we can do no more, we are tempted to become critical, gripe, and complain, but we need to lift our hearts and minds to God, our Father in heaven. Psalm 21 says, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He who keeps you will not slumber or sleep. The Lord is your keeper; he will keep your life.”
God does not want us to lose heart, but to keep praying to Him as our helper and keeper. Jesus told a parable about a widow who would not give up going to a judge to ask for justice against her adversary. The judge refused the widow, for he neither feared God nor respected man. The judge was indifferent to the widow and her case. As the widow refused to stop coming and asking the judge for justice, he decided to give her justice because he was tired of her repeated appeals to him. Jesus instructs that if the widow got justice from an uncaring judge by her repeated coming to him, understand how God will speedily help those who pray to him and do not lose heart in him as their helper and keeper.
Jesus understood how often we are not persistent in our prayers or our faith, for he ends the parable of the persistent widow with a question about his second coming. He asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?†Jesus knew that His second coming would happen in a period of spiritual decline. The widow demonstrated great perseverance in her dealings with the judge. Are we loyal and faithful to God in our prayers and lives? Do we lose heart or trust God to be helper and keeper in this life and in heaven to come? Is it a time of spiritual decline when we do not fear God nor respect others? It is our time to pray and not lose heart in our God.
