Just Ask

Help Wanted I really don’t mean to insult your intelligence or spiritual maturity with what I’m about to share with you. But sometimes, its the simple truths that are the easiest to escape us.

I’ve found myself in an interesting place lately. My “to do” list is longer than ever before. I get up earlier, go to bed later, and every waking moment of my day seems full of family responsibilities, pastoral duties, business management tasks. I can hear my mother now saying, “You better slow down Sam, (yeah she call’s me Sam) your gonna die a premature death cause you’re trying to do too much.” I know mom, I know. Its a season, and it won’t always be this way.

The other night I woke up from a light sleep, and had a single word rolling around in my head, “overwhelmed.” I closed my eyes and I could see the word, I could practically hear that solitary word being whispered into my ears from the sounds of silence. As I lay there, I began to think of the day ahead of me, I went ahead and got out of bed and tackled my to do list.

I felt so tired, so exhausted, and I had just gotten out of bed for the day. I prayed, “God I don’t know how I’m going to get all of this stuff done.” Then, almost instantly, I felt this impression deep in my gut to . . . . just ask. Just ask Him to help me. So I prayed, “God help me.” That was it. No deep pleas or gut wrenching intercession, simply “help me.”

In the days since that one last week, when taking on the big tasks that felt so overwhelming to me, I have sensed Him, right there beside me – helping me.

I share this post today simply for the person who feels overwhelmed with life. You know you need help. You want help. But finding help seems as hard as checking off everything on your to do list. Can I challenge you to simply ask for help? Stop right now, seriously, and ask God to help you, I’ll wait . . . . . . . . . Now can I challenge you to ask that prayer as many times today or the next day or the next day? Ask until you become so fully aware of His presence working in your life that even the big tasks seem small because He’s helping you.

“In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.”

Psalm 18:6