Daily Devotional: Monday, August 31

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Myth: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves; Truth: God Helps Us When We Cannot Help Ourselves.

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All Over the World by Matt Redman; Holy Is the Lord by Chris Tomlin; For Who You Are by Hillsong; Cover Me Down by Marcus Jones; You Saw Me by Hillsong.
 
Read:  Genesis 11:1-9

Think:  I sometimes think that the builders of the Tower of Babel get a bad rap.  They had some OK ideas, wanting to reach to heaven, to make a name for themselves, and to remain unified.  These things aren't inherently evil.  But in the case of these people, these goals revealed a destructive pride, an attempt to determine their own agenda without God's involvement.  It ended badly.

I suppose that the main reason I cut the tower-builders some slack is that I can relate.  Despite a relationship with God formed at an early age and nurtured up through my college years, I began to drift away from God.  I focused on ‘good' things - career, marriage, and children.  I did God the favor of taking care of myself so that he could help the folks who really needed it.  It ended badly, because I couldn't handle everything by myself.  As Pastor Ben said in his sermon, I failed myself and those around me.  I needed God's help in a big way, and that realization has made all the difference.

The humility required to turn the agenda-setting over to God goes against our fallen human nature.  We want to do our own thing, expecting God to show up and help us out when we ask.  But we don't know what we're doing, and our efforts at leading are doomed to fail.  God loves us, and truly wants to help us.  But his help isn't assistance, it's a takeover.  As we increasingly surrender our lives to him, he helps us in ways we can scarcely imagine.

Do:  We all have times we turn to God for help.  When you encounter one of those times today, instead of asking God to pitch in, ask him to take over. 

Pray:  Lord, I need more than just help.  I need your guidance.  I need you to lead every step of the way for the rest of my life.  But that's too much for me to think about right now.  Please, just lead my next step. Amen!

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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