Just Shut Up and Say Yes

I find that it is so much easier to give help than to receive help. I guess it's just pride when you think about it. Americans, in particular, have a driving sense if individuality and this often causes us to rebuff attempts by others to get involved in our lives. What a crummy way to live! It just perpetuates the cycle of isolation that we sugarcoat and call "independence." Like it or not, we were designed to need each other - we have a need to give and a need to receive.

We've been blessed by a tight circle of friends and family who are quick to surround us with love and support. At times it's very hard to step out of the way and let them minister to us. As one precious friend advised, "Just shut up and say yes." Tough love, I tell ya. Refusing help denies another person the opportunity to be obedient to God's command to love one another.

Too many times we not only push away friends' offers of help, we also decline God's offer of help. Perhaps we think we will bother Him or that He's got more important universe-type things to do, or we don't really believe deep down that He can do anything. I've just started a study called Breaking Free by Beth Moore and the key verses are Isaiah 61:1-3:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

These are the verses Jesus read and stated he had fulfilled (Luke 4:21). That's some help we all need and it's being offered freely by the God of the universe. Nashbabe gave me a book called The Wounded Woman by Dr Steve Stephens and Pam Vredevelt and it quoted those verses and followed with this conversational rewording (imagine Jesus speaking those verses this way):

I have good news for you. I am with you. I want to comfort you and heal your broken heart. At this very moment, I am pushing back hell and fighting your battles for you. I am avenging you. Before long you will experience the spoils of victory.

I see all the details. You deeply grieve your losses, and your grief is valid. I want to fellowship with you in your suffering. Come to Me. Allow My Spirit to touch your wounds. I promise you: I will replace your devastation and despair with My Spirit of gladness and joy. This isn't something you can do. It is something I will accomplish for you.

Wow. I just need to rest in Him because it's something He will accomplish for me. Chuck independence right out the window because I cannot do this for myself. I wasn't designed to. I just need to shut up and say yes.