Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. — Psalm 108:12

Take a minute and think back to a time in your life when you had to ask for help with something, like lifting a heavy item. If you are like most people, you start thinking about who is possibly available to help you. Are they able to lift the heavy item? Are they willing to help? You no doubt thought specifically of people you would not ask to help because, to be honest, they wouldn’t be very helpful.

Just like those times that we may need help physically and no one is able to help, we can often find ourselves in those positions spiritually as well. We can find ourselves facing the difficulties and struggles of life and we may have a wide array of emotions. We may feel as though no one understands what we are dealing with. Perhaps we feel as though the situation is helpless, or even hopeless.

In those times, it is important that we realize that it is God who provides our help. As the psalmist says, vain is the help of man. In other words, the help of those around us in those situations is a helpless and hopeless cause. They cannot change the feelings that we have. They cannot change the circumstances that we find ourselves in spiritually. They may provide a temporary encouragement, but it does not provide a permanent cure to our situation.

When we are in these situations, we should look to God because He is the one who can help and change our situation. Only God is able to comfort our souls like no other. Only God is able to guide us through His will for our lives. God alone can remove the guilt, shame, and trouble that we bear in our hearts. No one else can do the things that God can do for us!

We may have great friends in this world who would do anything that they could for us. But they cannot do the things that God can do for us. Only God can forgive and save, only God can remove the guilt and burdens that we bear, and only God can speak peace that passes our understanding into our circumstances. Before you trust anyone else, trust God for help in your difficult situation.

Jared Dyson