What Makes Help Helpful?

Last week I offered a reflection on how help can be unhelpful.  It’s a reminder that any good thing God created can be distorted, even in the slightest way, so that it no longer meets the purpose for which it was created.  Providing help is no exception.  We can independently put our own spin on something (euphemism for taking matters into our own hands without filtering through the Spirit) and wonder why it has become something that is not serving the health of ourselves, or the other, or both. 

So how can help actually be helpful?  In order to be able to have help carried out in a life-giving way, we need to understand a foundational concept: We are made in the likeness of God, not exactness of God.  While we have been given the awesome privilege of having the Holy Spirit dwell within us that carries the authority and power of God it does not give us the same capacity.  We cannot take God’s place.  Only God is all-knowing of things past, present and future (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-present (omnipresent).  Only God can be ALL things to ALL people, which means He is the source of ALL help.  We see this reflected in Psalm 121: “I look up to the mountains and hills, longing for God’s help.  But then I realize that our true help and protection is only from the Lord, our Creator who made the heavens and the earth.”  Instead of trying to do what only God can, we go to Him to guide us in helping. We cannot and were never asked to carry a burden that was solely made for God.  

Only God knows the heart of people - He knows and has been with them in the past and in the present.  He knows what they need right now and He knows what they will need in the future.  He has the ability to connect people by his power to be able to get us the help we need, not just for a short-term fix but a long-term solution.  Help is not a one-size-fits-all formula.  Therefore we cannot rely on ourselves to navigate the helping process without His guidance.  This is not an excuse to over-think or deny everyday/ simple requests for help but rather an invitation to an overall perspective shift on help in general.  A perspective that gives you and others the freedom to live and move and have your being in Him.

Remember that the goal is wholeness, not helpfulness.  Remember that people are to be loved, not fixed.  Remember that only God is the ultimate, divine helper (Ps. 54:4 TPT), capable of being in all and through all, for all.  

- Katie Rivera