True Help

The Lord says: "Woe to the rebellious children. They carry out plans but not Mine. They weave an alliance without my Spirit in order to add sin to sin. Without asking me, they leave to go down to Egypt to take refuge in Pharaoh's protection and shelter in Egypt's shadow. And you will be disappointed with Pharaoh's protection, and you who took refuge in Egypt's shadow will be ashamed." Isaiah 30:1-3

This verse convicts me. I mean, I try to look to God, but I always find myself making my own plans and not checking with Him to make sure that is what He wants me to be doing. But that is not the hardest part for me to accept, the hardest part is the taking refuge in Egypt.

Why would that part bother me? Well, in studying the Word, Egypt is a type of the world, just like oil is a type of the Holy Spirit. When things get tough, when I get backed into a corner, who do I turn to? I look to my friends and family to help me. Yeah, I turn to God when there is nothing left, no hope, but is that really when I should be getting Him involved? Shouldn't He be first on my list, not last?

I'm really not saying that friends and family are the world, but should we turn to them before we turn to God? I think that we all know the answer. Let me give you an example of something that's more akin to what these verses are saying.

Recently, in the past few months, my wife was taken out of work due to medical complications regarding her pregnancy (we are expecting our first addition to our little family in November), and while having her removed from work has improved her health, it has put some extra stress on me. She brought in 60% or so of our income, so to have the bulk of our money disappear, well, needless to say, it got me worried. I started to get really worried. My initial reaction was to stop almost all purchases, save for groceries. The second one was to start using my credit card, a very foolish thing to do.

I started looking to my creditors to get us through this rough patch. I took my eyes off God, put them on this situation, and saw that there was nothing that I could do to replace that income. So I looked to the world. I looked to the banks. I was even getting ready to look to the government. I talked about that with my wife; that she needed to look into disability or unemployment, whatever there was to help people in situations like this.

When I asked about it a few days later, my wife looked at me and told me that she hadn't looked into any of that. She felt that if went to the government for help, that we were not having faith in God. I knew that she was right, and that it was time to really start living what I believe, and even though I didn't see how, I knew that God was going to take care of us. And He has been, and I don't think that He will ever stop, so long as we genuinely trust in Him, the way that He has always wanted us to trust Him.

Friends, don't make God the last, desperate call you make. Make Him the first. Don't turn to the world, don't run to Egypt to be saved. The help you will get is summed up in verse 7, "Egypt's help is worthless, futile." Get some real help. Go to God and trust Him.

Sam