In Need of Help

It’s hard to admit your need of help. It’s hard to admit that there are things you do not know and do not understand. It’s hard to admit that there are things that you cannot do. It’s hard to reach out and cry out for help. It’s hard to confess to weakness and ignorance. It’s hard to have to depend on another for what you think you should be able to supply for yourself. It’s hard to talk about what you do not know and what you cannot do. It’s difficult to admit to poor judgment and wrong responses. It’s hard to receive correction and to confess to sin.

Why are these things so hard? Because we all like to buy into two very seductive lies. These lies argue against any need to be dependent and they bolster the independence that tends to attract us all. The first lie is the lie of AUTONOMY. Autonomy tells me that I am an independent being, with the right to do what I want to do, when, where, and how I want to do it. Now you may say, “Paul, I know well enough not to believe that!” Yet, every time you defend yourself against the correction of another or tell someone not to tell you what to do, you buy into this lie. The second lie is the lie of SELF-SUFFICIENCY. This lie tells me I have everything within myself to be what I am supposed to be and to do what I am supposed to do. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Okay, I do occasionally buy into my autonomy, but I definitely don’t think I’m self-sufficient!” Yet, each time you resist reaching out for help or each time you act like you’re okay when, in fact, you’re not, you have bought into this lie.

Why are these two lies so wrong and so dangerous? Because the Bible clearly tells us that we are people who have been made for COMMUNITY. We were designed to live in worshipful community with God and humble community with people. We were never constructed to live all by ourselves. Even Adam and Eve needed God and one another. Think about this. They were perfect people, living in a perfect world, yet they were still needy because they were not created to live life on their own.

Remember, there are few people more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You spend each day in constant comversation with you! And the things that you tell yourself shape what you do and say each day. Do you constantly remind yourself of your need of God and others.? Do you tell yourself that it is good to admit weakness and to reach out for help? If you do, it is not a sign that something is wrong. No, by God’s definition, that kind of self-talk is a sign that something is very right.

How about beginning to pray these three prayers every morning:

1. “Lord, I am a person in desperate need of help today.”

2. “Lord, won’t you, in your grace, send your helpers my way.”

3. “And please give me the humility to receive the help when it come.”

Are you intimidated by your weaknesses? Are you afraid to bare your needs to God and others? Don’t forget that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He came so that we would be able to experience both peace with God and with others. He came so that we would no longer have to seduce ourselves with the delusions of autonomy and self-sufficiency. He came so that we could be the kind of people we were created to be, living in humble worship of him and humble dependency on others, right here, right now.

God bless.

Paul David Tripp

This article is written by Paul David Tripp and taken from an email from info@paultrippministries.org

If you are able to attend or have further questions, please contact us here to let us know. This opportunity allows FWCM to give back to our church body, including El Camino, in a very tangible way. We hope to see you come out tomorrow for a few hours.

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Has your heart been stirred for missions or have you just had a small spark of an interest in an upcoming mission trip? (Like the one Woodway is taking to India this summer) Then read this TGC post for an interesting perspective on The Great Commission.

“Global missions is God’s universal mandate to take the gospel there and his gracious provision for us to be forever changed here. Stand in the midst of East African poverty. Build a home in southern Mexico. Walk the hurricane ravaged streets of Haiti. Sit in agnostic-packed European university classes. Observe the afternoon prayers of Muslims in the Middle East. Your assumptions, perspectives, and ideologies will be forever shifted. You will never be the same,” writes Jason Johnson of The Woodlands Community Church in The Woodlands, Texas.

Dreary weather at the beginning of Spring Break 2012 didn’t stop 38 volunteers from spending Friday through Tuesday of last week working as a team for FWCM’s annual local missions effort projectWACO. This year’s projectWACO focused on work projects for and evangelism surrounding La Vega Community Church near Bellmead and El Camino Church in Beverly Hills.

The churches, both plants of First Woodway, are located in predominately Spanish-speaking neighborhoods. For La Vega Community Church, the team canvassed the neighborhood telling residents about the church’s family fun day meant to inform locals about the new church and what it had to offer the community. ProjectWACO participants helped spread the word and then worked the event on Saturday. In canvassing the neighborhood, FWCMers were urged to thread the Gospel throughout conversations. Dr. Matt Queen, a professor of evangelism and associate dean at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, spoke to projectWACO attendees on the various elements of effective evangelism.

On Sunday they joined La Vega Community Church for sunday school, worship and a sermon.

Monday and Tuesday were work days — at La Vega Community Church and El Camino. For La Vega, the group repaired broken windows throughout the building, fixed-up many parts of the outdoor children’s playground and cleaned the exterior of a few buildings. For El Camino Church, which is currently using facilities within Beverley Hills Baptist Church, the group painted the youth and nursery rooms, renovated part of the head pastor’s office and assembled new cribs for their infant rooms.

“For Baylor students to pause from their frantic semester to serve churches in our city is a blessing. For them to share the gospel in word, expanding the borders of their mission is evidence of God’s grace,” College Pastor Michael Criner said.

If you’re looking to get involved with projectWACO be on the look for next year’s (they happen every Spring Break) but also consider helping FWCM send a team of college students to aide the head pastor of El Camino Church on March 31 as the church holds a neighborhood-wide event to tell the community about the church. College students are needed to help play with kids and talk to local residents. Spanish speakers with FWCM are greatly needed, too. If you’d like to help out, please email FWCM here.

Read through these truths and know that the sovereign God is working in and through your life and shaping you into who he has created you to be.

Know the truths about the gospel, the truths about Christ’s work on the cross and the truths about who you are now in Christ Jesus.

Instead of trying to confront your fears and being strong on your own, Trisha Wilkerson reminds us to Fight Fear with Fear of the Lord. She says, “to fight those fears is to believe that Christ has already won the battle and that he will continue to redeem [your]  heart in the midst of it.”

Don’t try and fight your fears alone.  Instead, turn to Christ and depend on Him.