Less Helpless

1 Psalm 121:1-2 say,

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
~ NIV

I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
~ Message

There are times when I feel helpless. A helplessness that is similar to what Apostle Paul expression in Romans 7:15 (NIV) "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

At those times, as I do what I hate to do I begin to hate myself, my situation, my limitations, and everything else. Like in the movie, Click, I want to quickly grab the remote and press the skip button.

However, at those times, God's love becomes very real, especially through the word. As I unconsciously recite Psalm 121:1-2 (see the quote earlier), I began to read it in parallel with the Message version. Do you see the red line?

The Psalmist, like me, is looking for help. I was looking for a grand rescue act. I was waiting for somebody to save me. But what does the Message version say about help? It means strength.

Strength is the answer. I never realize if I am strong I can overcome. I have always thought that I need to be rescued. Not once and not twice but all the time. I expect somebody would do all the dirty work, fight the battle, and save me, the beautiful princess whose body is trapped between snapping tree.

But today's word is saying to me that what God does is not to change situations or to send Michael, the Archangel, to come through and help me out of my problems. Instead, he changes me by giving me [enough] strength to overcome.

Drawing near to him is like filling our car's tank with enough fuel, feasting our body with healthy food, or recharging the batteries of our mobile devices with full power. 

Have Super-Powered Day, Folks!