When I try to help God Out

I Samuel 19

Part 1

Lessons from my Toolbox

I am a helpful person. I can’t help it. I have an uncontrollable urge to help.  If I see a stranger looking frantically for something in a grocery store, I normally ask to help them look. I must fight the urge to clean everyone’s dishes from the table, even before they are through eating.  If your arms are full trying to get into church with all your kids, I will offer to carry the diaper bag. I pick up children so they can reach the water in drinking fountain.  I open doors for the elderly. I like to help you find the cake decorator, photographer, fun activity or movie you are looking for in your area.  I must tie that un-tied shoe. I just can’t help it; I must help others.

Helping others isn’t a bad thing. I firmly believe that is how we show people God and his love for them. Christians should be remembered by their “love one for another”. Sometimes the small gift of “helps” can open the door to share the gospel.

But there is one time I must “bite my tongue” and back away from the situation that has glaring bright lights and blinking sign saying “I need help”; it is in my relationship with God. One of the quotes that convicts me most often is , “Resist the urge to think you need to help God.”. God doesn’t need me to organize, orchestrate or initiate His will. That is the whole point it’s His will not mine.

This week’s Bible reading has the story of Michal, daughter of Saul and first wife of David.  Michal greatly loves David, but never has a heart for the Lord. What a difference the story of their lives could have been if David’s wife had a passion for God . The setting for this chapter is that Saul is jealous and throws a javelin to kill David. When he fails, he sends men to sit outside David’s home to wait to attack and kill David. In an almost humorous story, Michal helps David escape out of a window and makes a “dummy” to replace David in bed. Saul is furious and in time Michal grows weary of “God’s timing” in David’s life and becomes another man’s wife. Phalti of Gallem was a better catch, she thought, seeing he was on his way to royalty which she was eager to secure and hold. This was an illegitimate union seeing David was alive and was in no way lawfully separated from Michal as her husband.  Later when David becomes king, Michal will return to David, but their relationship is never the same. Michal’s love has turned to bitterness and as the Bible says, she “despised” him.  I often wonder if it all began to change the night David followed Michal’s “help” without asking God’s will. The lesson for us this week is that if we pull out our toolboxes and try to help God, we may miss a clear view of God working. What the Almighty God and Creator of the Universe has planned is so far beyond your wildest imagination. Don’t allow your “help nature” get in the way of His greater plan.