Where Does Your Help Come From?

Try this with me: think of the people or things that, when you think of them, give you a sense of security.

But don’t stop at security – try going deeper. Who are the people and/or what are the things that have your trust?

Try going deeper again. Who or what in your life has your absolute trust?

Is there a person or a thing that fits that bill? Is absolute trust perhaps a step too far?

In doing this simple exercise, how many people or things crossed your mind but were eventually removed from your list?

Some people may identify God as the only person they absolutely trust. Others may nominate themselves, their family members or their best friends.

Some might actually not recommend themselves as absolutely trustworthy.

Also on the flip side, I would not ever be surprised if I came across a staunch Christian today who’d confess to a time in their life when a crisis of faith pushed them to feel at the time that God could not be absolutely trusted.

For some non-Christians, such thoughts are not groundbreaking. They are often genuinely based on what some feel are their lived experiences of God. Some accusations that some in this group of people may level God’s way include: absent, deaf, silent and complicit etc.

For some others, the distrust of God is more severe. For them, God would have to first exist before he could ever enter the deeper waters of absence, deafness, silence or complicity – never mind trust. To these people, he is a figment that features predominantly in weaker imaginations.

Bilious and bloated, they gas, “God is gone.” Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop.
Psalm 14 v 1 MSG

In all these cases, the situations and circumstances that we face (and have faced) in our lives play an important role in driving the thought processes that determine in whom or what we place our trust.

So when we find solutions to the issues that arise in our lives and when these solutions are available, consistent and logical, we are likely to build trust in those solutions.

Science, technology, politics and plain old common sense are some examples of the things that can earn our trust in this way. In their best lights, these things can also work out to be quite beautiful. Sometimes or perhaps even most times, they are unbiased, democratic and dependable. Sometimes they are just plain old simple laws of nature which cannot be bought or bribed – like, if you put a seed in good soil, it will grow and you will reap what you sow.

It is heartening when the route to a better life is clear. Even more so, when these routes and their results are certain. It is easy to let go and trust in the things we consider to be certainties. It is in this way that, for example, we become assured over time that we will get wet if we walk outside in the rain.

However, ultimately though, all certainty and uncertainty must source from somewhere.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121 v 1-2 ESV

Seed for the one that sows and bread for the one that eats are products of God’s goodness – God being the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and the Creator of Heaven and Earth; of mankind, the animals and the forests; of the things unseen and all the raw materials that have led to everything that we see and will see.

Effective medicines, tall skyscrapers, air travel and solar system exploration: these examples of human creativity are possible because of three environments that foster them. The first environment being the creative mind and breath of God (this is where we came from). The second environment being the world we live in (this is where God put us in). The third environment being the expanse of the human imagination (which we can seize control of or give over to God).

Interestingly, of these three environments, only one is limitless (the first). The last two are limited for two reasons: (1) they were created (by someone greater) and (2) they are in the control of limited people who have no control of their lives.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 20 v 7 ESV

So, to put this another way, when we dislocate our trust away from God the Creator and locate it instead on something created (by him or anyone else!) e.g. science, technology, politics or ourselves, we are essentially then choosing the ‘limited’ over the ‘limitless’.

Limitless horizons vs. limited horizons. The Creator vs. the created.

When I sift through it all, having had the honor and grace of experiencing God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in my life, I am dogged about the location of my absolute trust. By God’s grace, my absolute trust will only ever be in God and I will endeavor to put this in practice every day of my life.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73 v 25-26 ESV

But that’s my resolve. The question for those of you reading today is: where does your help come from?

If, as we have explored, it is ultimately unprofitable to put our trust in created things (because they are ultimately subject to their creator), what about trust in the things that are not created?

So, God then? Well, He is willing and able to have each and every one of us as one of His people if we will have Him as our Lord, God, Savior and Trust.

So let it be in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen!