Sometimes the tiniest of thoughts end up a complex and
thought provoking idea before you know it. The most recent one came to me when
I was praying the other day before I left for work. I found myself asking Abba
to “help me to make it to work on time and safely. Help me to make the best of
today. Help me to be the man You have made me to be.” Which is all pretty
standard in my morning prayers. This
time though, as I reflected on my prayers, one word kept popping up over and
over that left me feeling a little uncomfortable. That word was “help”. The more and more I thought about asking Abba
for help to do the things and to be the things He asks of me, the more I got a
strange sense of conviction over it.
Before I go any further, I want to point out that there are
several passages throughout the scripture that use the word help. I do not
believe there is anything wrong with asking Abba for help. I am merely writing
about a personal revelation, if you will, regarding how I have seen the
prospect of asking for help. I would not hold my personal convictions over
anyone. Please understand that that is not my intention.
My understanding of the word help is someone or something
that comes to bear the weight of a certain task alongside you to more
efficiently reach a goal. With that in mind, all the times I asked my beloved Yah
for help started to feel like I was saying something along the lines
of “Hey Abba, could You meet me here to assist me in this? I think I could do
it on me onsies, but it would go a lot quicker if I had Your assistance.” In other words, I felt I was still relying on
my own power in part of what I was doing. I wasn’t putting my full trust in Him
and casting my burdens completely on Him. I was looking at it, in a way, that I
was doing what I could but I needed Him to pick up where I was slacking.
The rest of the day I was wrapped in these thoughts of what
kind of help I truly need. I was trying to wrap my head around an idea that
kept spinning in a circular logic. In other words, the Ruach was really
pressing on me to hear what He was trying to tell me. The conclusion that I
reached, through prayer and submission, is that I don’t need His help. I don’t
need His assistance, and He doesn’t need mine. What I do need, is to
surrender. What I need is to completely
hand over the reins.
Have you ever watched Star Trek? In every version of it, you
have a tight knit crew that works together as a whole to make the whole ship
function. You have the Captain, who gives the orders. The Second in Command,
who fills in for the Captain when need be.
You also have a navigator, a science officer and so on and so on.
Without everyone following the instructions the Capt. gives, everything would
be thrown into chaos. Everyone would be doing their own thing and the ship
would either do nothing, or implode. Either
way, it is not a good scenario.
The long winded, and completely nerdy, analogy I’m trying to
make is that Abba doesn’t need us as His crew. He can and will handle all of
these things for us. We are not the Captain, the Navigator, or second in
command. We are the ship. I can do
nothing of my own power, and since I can do nothing of my own power, I don’t
need any help doing nothing. What I need, and what I desire more than anything,
is to cease to be me and let Abba do what He wants in me. I need Him to mold me
into His image He has designed for me. The only thing I need to do is let Him.
One Love,
Albert C. Coble
No comments:
Post a Comment