Title: God Who Helps Forever
Contents
1. Words that begin
There is a saying that Adam, who lived under the grace of God in the Garden of Eden, also needed a helper, so he made a woman. These words show that humans are beings who have no choice but to live by giving and receiving help.
However, from the moment Adam and Eve, who lived in mutual aid, followed the voice of Satan's temptation, mutual help turned into resentment and misfortune for each other. In fact, human help apart from God can be seen as a way to satisfy a sense of superiority or contempt, or to obtain greater profits. Therefore, it is inevitable that the person receiving the help will be ‘weeping and eating mustard’. Also, if you continue to receive help, you will become more dependent on it, which can lead to serious problems that make you unable to function as a person. Therefore, the most important thing in life is to walk with God who helps us forever.
2. Our Creator God Helps Us
The text titled ‘Song of Ascent to the Temple’ is a poem written in a way that one can sing to each other. This chant is an exchange between you and yourself, or between priests and worshipers, or between leaders and pilgrims.
At that time, Jews who came to Jerusalem to worship had to go through rough and rough wilderness roads and risk encountering ferocious beasts and robbers. So they usually traveled in groups and set up a vigil at night.
If we say that there are many hardships along the way to worship God, there is no need to talk about how many and terrible suffering people who are led away from God without knowing that they are being led down the road of destruction. People apart from God grab, grab, and hold on to anything morbidly, but they are bound to become slaves to anxiety and vainness under the shadow of death that is approaching with no error.
So, people sometimes give and receive help, but in reality, they are not outside the scope of selfishness. Why pay for bread or bribes? After all, isn't that the point of mutual aid in sin? Even if they have a pure heart, humans cannot have the power and wisdom to truly help. Aren't all humans beings with limitations? You don't even know about birth and death, do you? What is iron? It's a strange thing to say, but isn't it a deeper and deeper realization that 'my life doesn't go my way'? I can't even do my own life, how can I make a decisive contribution to the lives of others? So, has not idolatry been overflowing from time immemorial? However, a certain fortune teller who became famous for predicting the death of Kim Il-sung said that less than half of the prophecies he made in the past year were correct, so we cannot trust and rely on it.
The world's richest man, Onassisi, had enormous wealth, but he could not help even the slightest bit of help when his only son died in a plane crash. Not only that, but that great fortune and fame did nothing to his own soldiers.
Byron sang, "Life is an empty bubble, the leaves of late autumn, the flowers and fruits fall, and the worms eat the woes. Shakespeare said, "A shabby actor who appears on stage with a smirk and then disappears without any news." Someone said simply but precisely, "Life is born, then suffer, and then die."
But the psalmist said, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where will my help come from? My help is from the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth.” Isn't the lament of "I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from" is the lament of all life, whether rich or intellectual or heroic? Therefore, what is absolutely important is the experiential realization that “my help is from the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth.” Everyone, in your daily life, I hope that you will experience the help of God who created all things in the universe and provides not only human life and death, but also the providence of all things.
3. God who keeps you day and night
God's help is not vague, but very specific and practical.
First, God does not let us stumble. He works to prevent us from stumbling on the path of a traveler's life to heaven and not to make a mistake in our actions. Please believe that God's help that we who are saved should value most is not to stumble, not wealth, health, success or authority, knowledge or honor. Philippians 1:20 records the expectations and hopes of the apostle Paul, who was unfairly imprisoned for preaching Christ. “According to my earnest expectation and hope, I will not be ashamed of anything, but I am still fully confident as before, that Christ may be glorified in my body, whether by life or death.”
What are your earnest expectations and hopes?
The secret to not stumble and to honor only the Lord whether we live or die is to follow the truth of the Word. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Second, God protects us. Israel, the God who cares for and protects us, chosen through faith, neither slumbers nor sleeps. No matter how talented, knowledgeable, wise, loving, and healthy a person may be, there is always a time to sleep and a time to sleep. The Watchman is no exception. But God, who saves us and watches over and protects us throughout our lives, never sleeps or sleeps. Always at our right hand, he is our shadow, protecting us from the damage of the sun by day and the moon by night. The ancients believed that the sun and moon were the cause of incurable diseases. Also, our God frees us from all tribulation originating from the devil and protects our souls. The words that the Creator God watches over us and protects us day and night gives us great comfort, courage, and strength.
However, this statement should not be taken lightly. These verses testify to the fact that even the devil, who corrupts and destroys us, does not sleep and does not sleep. Day and night, the devil also overthrows humans with the winds of tribulation, disease, cowardice, success, success, money, and pleasure.
Therefore, the Lord's chief disciple Peter warned, "Be sober and watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). We must always be awake and dwell under the shadow of God who watches over us and protects us day and night. We must put on the full armor of God and live our lives standing firm in the Lord.
The problem, however, is that humans leave the bosom of God who helps them day and night, prevents them from stumble, takes care of them, protects them from tribulation, and protects their souls. Matthew 23:37 says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times have I tried to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you did not want it. It's all," Jesus sighed.
4. God who keeps forever
No matter how much God helps us day and night, it is not so different from the finite help of men if it is limited to the time before death. Because death ends everything in life in vain. But our God cares for and protects us from now to eternity. Only God can solve the problem of death and furthermore make eternal life in heaven possible. The problem after death is a problem of faith and a problem of spiritual perception. Realizing and believing this amazing fact through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is truly God's great help.
Mo Kim, 38, whose stomach cancer had spread to the liver, said, “I am not afraid of death because I have confidence in the resurrection. I thought I would only live for three days, but I am grateful for what I have bought so far. Thank you so much for taking care of me during this time.”
5. Conclusion
When we let go of our finite will, not God, our desires, our imperfect desires, when and how we want them to be, we can experience the loving hand of God who helps us day and night and protects us forever. There is.
We earnestly pray that all of us will receive abundantly the grace of God who helps and protects us from now on to eternity, and that we all become God's tools to help and protect everyone as much as we can.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Humanity/ Prosperous Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 19. T. 426 -3051)