Asking for Help

I don't know how I did it, but the spine in my upper back between the shoulder blades must have a bone or two out of place. Last night was when the pain started and nothing I have done since then has eased the pain. Picking up my head, sitting up, and even taking a deep breath all cause a tremendous amount of pain to surge through me. My husband is at work so I had my kids try to massage it and apply as much pressure as they could to the area in an effort to try and pop the bone or bones back into place. My son even sat on my back and rocked back and forth to no avail. I finally told them to stop and then proceeded to try and get up from the floor so I could start my day. Once I finally was able to get up, which took quite a while because of how painful it was to move, I decided to start by doing my devotions.

I turned to the passage in II Timothy 2:1-7 and began reading. I actually laughed when I read verse 3 which says "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Yup, God has a great sense of humor sometimes. I finished reading the devotional and then picked up my journal to write. The first thing I said was how hard it was to concentrate on His word when I was in so much pain. I really thought I was just going to cry out to Him for healing so that my back would stop hurting, but He had something else He wanted me to realize.

He brought to mind that I didn't ask the kids to help me when I was trying to get up from the floor. They were both there and could see how much pain I was in. I know if I had asked them to help, they would have gladly done whatever they could have to help me. I don't even remember if one of them had asked "Can I help?", but I know my answer would have been "no" because I wouldn't have wanted one of them to get hurt or to feel bad if they weren't successful in their efforts to help me get up. I then had the dreaded "Why" questions pop into my head. Why had I not asked for their help? Why did I do it on my own and suffer with all that pain when I probably wouldn't have felt so much pain if I had asked for help? I'm sure you can see where this is headed too. God was using exactly what I was going through to teach me a valuable lesson.

Why had I not asked my kids for their help? I didn't want one of them to get hurt. I'm much bigger than they are and I don't know that they would have been much help anyway. Then God asked "Why don't you ask ME for help when you need it?" I certainly couldn't answer that the same way I answered the first question! God is so much bigger and more powerful than me. I realized though that there are times I do try to do things on my own and I struggle through it, when I could have had it so much easier had I just asked God for His help. That's when I realized that the second why question that had popped into my head could also be applied here. Why did I do it on my own and suffer with all that pain when I probably wouldn't have felt so much pain if I had asked for help? When someone assists you in getting up, your muscles don't have to work as hard and therefore the pain would more than likely have been lessened since my muscles wouldn't have been pulling on the bones that are out of alignment in my back and causing me pain. How many times have I tried to do things on my own and had to go through pain because I didn't ask God for help first? God doesn't want us to be in pain. He loves us! He wants to help us! WHY would I not ask for help from my all-powerful Savior?! Why would I choose to suffer and struggle to get through something when I could simply ask God to help me and lessen or even remove that pain?

I don't know what you are going through, but I do know that God is able to help. There is nothing He can't do. Don't struggle through it alone. Allow God to help ease the load. Be free from the pain that struggling through it in your own power causes. Feel God's power as He works. Don't be afraid to ask for help!