Psalms 19, 24, 65, 68, 110; 2 Samuel 8:1, 21:15-18; I Chronicles 18:1, 20:4

It occurred to me, after reading these passages this morning, that as members of God’s Church, we have an opportunity to help each other. We read psalms like the ones included in today’s Scripture and hear about our mighty, powerful, enemy-crushing God. And sometimes I think we might take it too personally.

Like: “I have this problem. I need to tap into God’s power and overcome this sin, or this situation. If victory doesn’t happen, there must be something wrong with me.” We have the mistaken idea God expects us to go it alone, or that means we don’t have faith. We end up feeling guilty and defeated because we still struggle, even though we are calling out to God to help us.

Now, maybe it is you. Maybe you really aren’t being obedient, or repenting of sin. But it also could be God wants to use one of us to come along side you and be His power for you.

A Philistine named Ishbi-Benob said he was going to kill David. “But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him…” (2 Samuel 21:17a)

I’m not saying David wouldn’t have successfully beaten Ishbi-Benob himself. But I love it that he didn’t have to. Abishai rescued him before the Philistine even got to David.

I hope you are close enough to your church fellowship that you recognize when someone is struggling, even when they wear that cheery smile every Sunday. I hope you faithfully pray for them. But I also hope you ask God if He wants you to stand along side this person, to prevent this person from having to handle the problem on their own, to rescue this person.

What a privilege it is to be God’s arms that wrap around a hurting brother or sister, to be his voice that speaks words of comfort, to be his legs to go into action on another’s behalf.

Even Christians hurt. Even Christians struggle sometimes. Let’s ask God to show us how we can come to the rescue.