“I look up to the mountains-does my help comes from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!”
Psalm 121:1-2 NLT
WHILE there are many people who have helped us along the way there is only one source of help the Lord! Don’t get me wrong it’s not wrong to be grateful to people, in fact it is downright rude to be unthankful for all the help others have extended to us. Gratitude is generic. It belongs to anyone; worship is exclusive. It belongs to God alone!
“My help comes from the Lord” speaks of God as the true source of all the help we got and we can ever get. It set us free from falling into the trap of paying a debt of gratitude to the wrong source. In fact, the help that comes from the Lord requires no payback! It allows us to focus on God while we are grateful for the many vessels God has chosen for His help to flow. I remember the Prophet Elijah being fed by the raven who brought him meat, and his thirst being quenched by abundant supply from the brook Cherith.
I hope you notice the humor here, without God restraining, ravens are not really known for their generosity especially sharing meat? When the raven no longer brought meat, and the brook has no more fresh water, a widow from Zarephath will share her last meal to feed a starving Prophet, only to find out that she too and her neighbours will be fed by the seed of generosity she sacrificially offered. What is obvious here is that the Lord was the source of all this help!
Missing the real source of help will change our spiritual direction to the wrong path. If the raven and the brook and the sacrificing widow distract our attention from the true source then life, which is meant to be simple, will be unbelievably complicated. Enjoyment of blessings from God are now entanglement of guilt instead of pure grace. When ravens, brooks and widows are now elevated to a position of becoming the source instead of just being channels the journey turns sour losing the taste of grace.
Remember that only the generosity of the Almighty comes from this holy attribute of goodness, while the generosity of us is contaminated with many impurities along with its demand for pay back. Knowing that the Lord is the source of our help should not make us arrogant and ungrateful rather it should set us free from the trap to please others and spend the rest of our lives paying back to the wrong giver! It is also a reminder if on the other side of the coin you and I are the one giving to others to be reminded that we are only channels and not the source of these blessings. It should be a conscious conviction of those whom God channels blessings not to hoard it but share it, and once blessings are shared it cannot be used to rob others of their dignity.
We share not from the posture of superiority but from the heart of another grateful receiver, reflecting the character of the source! I must admit that there Is a distinct joy when we become channels of God’s help, while this is true it is not a godly response when feeling good becomes the motive of our sharing, this too is personal agenda. Perhaps this is the reason why being anonymous is a torture to the soul. Godly desire for obscurity declares the omnipotence of God! The source gets all the glory!