The Lord’s Help

He leads me …

A father told me how his 8 year old daughter had gone through a glass door and cut herself. She had cut her chin, elbow, ankle and one or two other places, but thankfully none of the cuts were serious. This suggested to me that there had been some divine intervention to stop the accident from being a lot worse.

There are times when the Lord will step in to our lives uninvited, but there are also times when He waits for us to call on Him.

There is the story in Mark 6:45-52 of the disciples on the Sea of Galilea rowing against the waves and being blown off course. Jesus had sent them on ahead while He went into the hills to pray after feeding the five thousand people.

The Bible says that it was the fourth watch (between 3 - 6 am) when Jesus walked out on the water to the disciples in the boat. Although several of the disciples were experienced fishermen they were so involved in what they were doing in the storm that they did not recognise Jesus on the water.

Mark says in his account of the story that when Jesus told them who He was, it was as though He was going to pass on by. Why? Why not ask if they wanted some help? That is not what Jesus does.

He was waiting for the disciples to ask for help, and if they didn’t, He was going to keep going. He wants us to exercise our faith and call out to Him. As His Word says, ‘You do not have because you do not ask.’ (James 4:2)

And He is not always going to respond immediately, but it will be at the right time. When the Lord holds off with His response, there is a reason. Perhaps it is to bring us to the place where we trust Him regardless of the circumstances (as we see them). Maybe it is to fit in with another event. There can be all kinds of reasons. What we can be sure of though, is that when we give the situation over to the Lord in prayer and leave it with Him, He knows exactly what to do.