A Very Present Help

                As I read the scriptures in Psalm 46:1-3 quoted below, a verse in Isaiah comes immediately to my mind:

Isaiah 41:13  For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

              The phrase “…a very present help…” is what I want to key for this devotion.  In Isaiah, “…the LORD thy God…” tells us “…I will help thee.”  What more could we want than to know that our LORD God is present and He will help us.

              On any given morning, we feed our “welfare” cats at our back door.  It is always interesting to note when one gets grouchy, which ones will leave the scene and which stay.  Generally it is a Tomcat who gets pushy, (though there have been some very grouchy females,) and the other Tom’s start looking for an exit.  Yet, some stick around and encircle my legs, hanging close to me for protection.  They treat Sharil and I as if we are an “ever present help.”  (We are not an “ever present god.”) 

              Yet, many Christians claim “…very present help…” but seldom grace the doors of God’s House.  Others gather at Church to worship our Living God, the Creator and our ever “…present help..,” yet are much like our welfare cats.  When the feeding is done, no acknowledgement to God is ever given.  Many refuse to come to Sunday School, and the Sunday and Wednesday evening services.  Yet every one who is a member here wants the blessings of God.  They want themselves, their relatives, and friends on our prayer list, yet are not willing to be a blessing to God, or their so-called “Church Home.” 

              Our cats, unless providentially not able to attend, are always at their “feeding services,” rain or shine, night or day.  They attend.

              I can just hear it now, “Well Bro John we are much above Cats in God’s Creation.”  Believe me, I agree, but the cats know from whence their blessings come.  If we as Christians are not at the “feeding trough” of God and hearing His Living Word, how can we claim Him?  God teaches us that:

Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

  

Our “faith” needs feeding.  We need the “…very present help…” and we want His help,  yet we will not “put out our hand” for His “…very present help…”

              We as Christians have become the “vagrants of the world.”  We will do anything but “Trust and Obey” God.  We will change our Bible to a softer reading, less restricting version.  We will change churches to go to a Church where services are singing praises to Jesus and speaking only of His endless love.   What about commitment?

              God expects more of us than being a “welfare recipient.”  He expects us to be “producers of fruit.”  He expects our attendance in Church.  He expects us at all the services. 

              What do you expect from Him?                               

Bro. John R. E Chastain

Psalms 46:1-3     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  (2)  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;  (3)  Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.