Is It Too Late To Ask for Help?

“Oh, Lord, I need some help,” I prayed as I flopped down in my chair. Consistently unfocused, my brain was struggling to find joy in the midst of 2 major temper tantrums from my 3 year old. When I asked the girls to clean up the entryway, they both called out “Not me!” and ran upstairs. I was too tired to argue. The dishes were piled up and the table needed cleaned off, but my instinct was to flee (to a nap).  

photo credit: maireads via photopin cc

I should have started off my day with a prayer.  

But I didn’t.

I should have turned to Scripture before turning to my to-do list.

But I didn’t.  

Overwhelmed with exhaustion and the day quickly rolling out ahead of me, I jumped into gear before warming up.

As I sat down in the chair midday, a measure of guilt rang through the midst of my cluttered mind:  

Oh, sure, NOW you turn to Him.  Just when you need some help.

Luckily this wasn't my first tango with Satan, so my spirit and the Holy Spirit were ready with a comeback:  

As a matter of fact, Christ is The Help for the Helpless.  

And I qualify as that, especially in this moment,

(but always)

so YES!  

I will turn to His mercy in my need.

Like the groaning Israelites, pleading for a rescue.

Like David, whose songs reveal a man who had nothing to depend on to save His life, other than His God.

As Asa seeking the aid of His God, the God of Judah, as he faced a million men.  

Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were broken before the Lord and his army.

(2 Chronicles 14:9-13)

Whether I start out the day on my knees or in a blur;

Whether I show up with an army or one man;

Whether I’m the anointed king, or an unclean peasant;

I am helpless without the Great Helper.  

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

(Mark 2:17)

With these assurances, we can pray for help. We can pray for focus. We can be confident that our God, the Great Helper, hears us - the helpless - at all hours. It is to this faithful God, we pray.