Are You Ready to Get Help?

“I am so ashamed of myself,” a beloved friend told me over the telephone as we cried together. He shared with me his decision to get help for a long-time struggle, and little did he know how I would respond despite my long-time history of showing judgment and condemnation instead of God’s love and mercy.

“Are you kidding me?!” I said as I cried. “Do you know there is not a single person on this earth who does not struggle with something. I’m so proud of you!” I exclaimed.

I could not have been more grateful that he had humbled himself to be willing to get help, nor more thankful that God has humbled me in teaching me day by day to love instead of to judge. Who am I to judge anyway, what with my own struggles? I am not. For I, along with my beloved friend, along with every human being on this earth, we all fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) because not a single one of us is righteous (Romans 3:10).

Without the grace of God and the fact He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to the cross to die a gruesome death to pay the penalty for our sins and struggles, we would all be permanently separated from God and headed for eternity in hell. But through repentance from our sins, and believing what Jesus did on the cross for us, and a life committed to following Jesus, we receive forgiveness, and receive a breathtakingly beautiful relationship with God both now and forever in heaven.

Do you know the story in the Bible of the tax collector who stood before God bragging about how he didn’t sin like everyone else? Do you know what the other man did? He beat upon his breast, couldn’t lift his eyes up to the Lord, and stood at a distance because he knew he was a sinner. Which one did Jesus honor? The sinner who repented.

Everlasting life is for those who admit they are sinners and repent, place their faith in Jesus Christ, and demonstrate with their lives that they are committed to following Jesus. Help is for those who admit they need it and are willing to receive it. My friend had reached the point of such utter brokenness that he admitted he needed help. He was ready.

How about you?

“And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14“I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 NASB

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9-10 NASB

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 1 Peter 5:6  NASB

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