From the Senior Associate Pastor. . .

I have heard it said: “God gives us the strength to bear what happens, not what might happen.”

 

I need this reminder and I need it often because I have a proclivity to worry early and avoid the rush. I am more likely to worry about what may fall on me years from now like retirement and health issues rather than something I may face tomorrow. Because the perils of the future exist only in the realm of my imagination, the only comfort available to me is just as imaginary.

 

On our recent trip to Haiti, Boo and I were regularly forced to view other’s tragedies and say aloud to one another, “I don’t think I could handle that.”  Well, we were accurate in our assessment. God has not given us the grace to handle what He has not yet asked us to bear. The grace promised to us in Scripture is available only in the present, and only when it is needed.

 

After reminding us that Christ can sympathize with our weaknesses, the writer of Hebrews 4.16 invites, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” A literal, albeit awkward rendering of this verse from the Greek promises the Christian "grace for a well-timed help."

 

What does a well-timed help look like? Does it look like Superman sweeping out of the sky to rescue the endangered one from peril? Ordinarily not.

 

If anyone deserved to be removed from suffering it was Jesus, but God in his perfect purposes chose for Jesus to endure through suffering rather than avoid it. More often than not, He chooses to help us endure rather than remove the trial.

 

I find it fascinating that the same Greek word translated as "help" in Hebrews 4.16 is translated as "ropes" in Acts 27.17. In this scene, Paul travels on a ship that gets caught in a violent storm. The wind and waves are so fierce that the sailors fear the ship will split apart. They pass ropes ("helps") under and around the creaking vessel in order to hold it together.

 

Sometimes, the well-timed help that God provides doesn't calm the waves, but it holds us together until the storm dies down.

 

The psalmist describes God as "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46.1). He will not give us the help before we need it, and He may not remove us out of trouble, but He will be there with us to hold us together. When the troubles do come, we can approach his throne with confidence, fully expecting to receive the grace of his well-timed help.

Pastor Mullinax