Help!
“I call with all my heart; answer me, LORD, and I will obey your decrees.
I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes.”
Today’s Text: Psalm 119:137-152 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Is it OK to barter with God like this? “I’m in trouble, Jesus! Help me out of my jam, and I will be good from now on!”
We make these kinds of deals with people all the time. But here’s what’s crazy. I think that us humans are more likely to keep our promises to other humans than we are to God! Or maybe it’s just me.
How often have I repented of my sin and then found myself stumbling over the same sin without batting an eyelash—in other words, without giving it a second thought?
But here’s what’s even crazier. The answer to the original question is “yes.” But it’s not that we are “bartering” with God, per se—trading our good behavior for His help. It’s that God simply helps us when we call out to Him, because we are His children. He is our good, good Father.
God helps us because He has already saved us. And because He has already saved us, we can call on Him in our times of need. But also, because He has saved us, God wants to draw us into His household, into His kingdom, where He rules and His children obey.
In other words, God helps us not because of our promise to obey. In fact, we will probably stumble, and God knows that. God helps us because we are His children, and we call out to Him. But God also wants us to recognize and acknowledge that He is our Father, that we are His children, and that as His children, He will always help us in our need, but that we ought to abide in His household according to His word.
That is the pattern of our relationship with God that we find throughout Scripture. God saves us, we get into trouble because of sin, we repent and call out to God for help, God saves us, and the cycle continues.
But a smart child of God learns—not just from our own mistakes—but from the pattern we find in Scripture. And so, as we grow, we learn to obey.
Father, You are so patient with us. You are so patient with me. Forgive me for tripping over my same sins over and over again. But You are so kind and gracious. Your love has never failed me in my time of need. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
