I Can’t Do It by Myself!

At the time of this writing, my daughter is two years old, and though she is not a terror, she does enjoy having her own way. Her favorite phrase to say is, “I do it!” One of her favorite snacks is Babybel cheese (those little round cheeses that come wrapped in wax covered in a plastic wrap). Every time she is given a Babybel cheese to eat, she wants to unwrap it herself. The only problem is that she cannot! She manages to get the plastic wrapper off most of the time, especially if someone starts to open it just a little bit, but she cannot pull the tab to remove the wax layer. Therefore, every day she and I have this battle of her insisting she can “do it” herself; but alas, she cannot.

While reading Psalm 50 one day, I was reminded that we often are like my little girl. God tells us in verse 15, And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. So many times in my life, I have been in that …day of trouble:… Many times, I have faced circumstances beyond my control, but I wanted to “do it myself.” Just like my daughter with her little, wax-wrapped snack that she could not wait to open, I was determined that I could handle it. Meanwhile, God was waiting patiently for me to ask for His help. I can picture Him eagerly sitting up in Heaven while watching us struggle and saying, “Come on! Just ask for help. I want to help you! All you have to do is ask.”

Unfortunately, we often continue to struggle on our own because we are too proud or too stubborn to ask for help. Maybe we feel as if we did wrong and deserve to be in trouble (and maybe we do deserve to be in trouble), but God still wants to help us. He is just waiting for us to call out to Him. How many times do we miss out on God’s blessings because we are determined to “do it ourselves?”

I am always amazed at the Israelites. Exodus 2:23 says, And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. They did not cry to God when the Egyptians forced them to …serve with rigour: in Exodus 1. They did not cry to God when their babies were taken away and killed. Their cry came much later, when Moses was 80 years old and in the desert. How much sooner would God have come to their aid before that if they had just cried to Him?

We are often the same way. We do not want to “bother God” when we have a “little problem.” We may even think, “God helps those who help themselves.” We may even be thinking, “I messed up and got myself into this situation, so it’s up to me to get out of it.” This line of thinking is just as silly as that of the child who disobeys by going outside when he is told not to go, then ends up falling and scraping his knee. Imagine the mother expecting that child to take care of his injury by himself, even if his disobedience resulted in that injury. As a mother, I would draw him into my arms, hold him, clean his wound, and apply a bandage.

Our Heavenly Father cares even more for us. He does not sit in Heaven saying, “Well, if you hadn’t disobeyed, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” He wants to pick us up, care for our wounds, and help to get us going in the right direction. He tells us to call on Him in the day of trouble. He will deliver you and will do so in such a way that He gets the glory.

Just call on Him! You cannot do it alone; but with His help, you can!

by Vicki Voorhis

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