The Hands of God

​I am so thankful that God uses people 

Our God is a very personal God. He is a relational God. He lives in community, and He designed us to need that community, as well – starting with the fellowship we have through a relationship with Him. But it doesn’t end there – He also created us to need other people. Other Christians. Fellowship and relationships through the local church. Because God uses people.

We need encouragement. We need help. We need hope.

When we’re overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, and broken, we are tempted to isolate. But it’s in those broken moments that we most need each other. We benefit the most from our relationships when it’s the hardest – when we’re most tempted to give up, close up, or shut down. When we’re vulnerable. When we’re scared. When we’re desperate.  

The pattern in scripture is that when people (or even the nation of Israel) were desperate, they cried out to God. And God sent a man. God sent a woman. God sent a person. And He used that person to help, encourage, and bring about deliverance, both personally and corporately.
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When Adam was alone and needed a helper,
​God created Eve.

​WHEN DAVID WAS RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE,
GOD GAVE HIM JONATHAN.

​When Israel cried out for deliverance in Egypt,
​God sent Moses. 

​As I look back over my life, I can see this pattern in my own life. In my greatest struggles, God used a person to encourage me, refocus me, and help me. My most notable “growth spurts” were when I stepped out in faith and let someone minister to me in my brokenness. Often, it was my parents. More recently, it’s been others in the family of God that have come alongside me to encourage me and help me to run the race. They’ve helped me by lifting the burden, crying with me, praying with me, and pointing me to Jesus.

​One of the biggest sources of depression can be traced back to a simple series of disappointments resulting from wrong expectations. Not necessarily sinful expectations – but expectations that were not based in reality, expectations not rooted in God’s promises, or perhaps simply unsurrendered expectations. When we failed to receive what we wanted, we become disappointed, which causes us to become discouraged, and if we’re not careful, spirals us into despair and depression. And sadly, the more discouraged we feel, the more likely we are to cut ourselves off from the people who God has placed in our lives to help us in those very moments of disappointment.
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We need people. ​

People we can be honest with. People we can trust to not only protect our vulnerabilities, but that we can trust to speak God’s truth into our hearts and lives in our weakest moments when we can’t see it ourselves.

Do you have someone like that in your life? I hope that you do.

Do they know that they are that person in your life? Have you told them? Have you asked them to be that hope in your life, that strong tower when you need protection? Have you taken the first step of faith by being honest with them about how they’ve helped you – and how you want them to continue to help you? If you can do this before the next crisis hits, it will make it so much easier to reach out when it happens.

You need that person in your life. They need to know they are that person in your life. But even more than that, YOU need to know they’re that person in your life. This can often be the hardest part. Once you know who this person is, will you commit to them? To entrust yourself to them? Will you not only make a priority of sharing with them what you’re going through, but will you also commit to listening to what they say, even if it hurts?

Our goal in our moments of fear, discouragement, and hopelessness is often to feel better. But trying to feel better is usually what causes us to make irrational, desperate choices that make things worse. We must, instead, change our goal from feeling better to getting better. Because when we get better, we’ll begin to feel better.

How do we get better? 
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​First, we must BELIEVE better. ​

We must do a heart-check and consider if we’ve been believing lies that have caused to make wrong (sinful) decisions. For example: when I isolate, I’m acting on a wrong belief (a lie) that says that no one will understand what I’m going through, that they’ll judge me, or that I’m a failure if I need help. Scripture says the opposite. In Ephesians 4:16, I read that God created us to need each other, and that we all have a purpose in the Body of Christ and we are all dependent on each other and help each other grow. In Galatians 6:2, I’m reminded that if I refuse to share my burdens with others (and let them share theirs with me,) I’m interfering with their responsibilities before God. Along those same lines, Psalm 133:1 challenges me that to isolate is to disrupt unity with my brothers and sisters in Christ. 
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​Checking my beliefs leads me to the next stage:

WE MUST THINK BETTER.

I must take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. I must choose the truth. Memorize the truth. Dwell on it. If I’m fearful of sharing life with others, perhaps I’d memorize Psalm 133:1 –  “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”
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we must ACT BETTER

Thinking better leads me to act better. Instead of dwelling and acting on lies, I am now dwelling and acting on truth. As I remember that I am part of the family of God and that we are all running the same race and have a purpose to help each other, it causes me to act in love toward those around me. It causes me to act in such a way as to promote unity – beginning with my willingness to be open and vulnerable with those God has placed in my life. 

​Acting on this truth allows me to discover God’s grace – the power God gives to do what God says – and find that His Word is true. It allows me to experience growth. I grow personally, as I learn to walk by faith in sharing myself with others, and I grow in my relationships as a bond forms through our sharing of life together. 

finally, we will feel better.

This obedience, which results from believing, dwelling, and acting on the truth, will soon cause me to feel better. It may not happen immediately, but it will happen. And though feeling better is never the ultimate goal, it’s the wonderful byproduct of our obedience to Christ.

This feeling better reinforces my better believing, better thinking, and better acting and causes me to take it one step further: once I’ve been the one to benefit from another person in my weakness and struggle, it empowers me to be that person for someone else. And as I begin to focus on ways to encourage and give hope to others who are struggling with disappointments, hurts, and fears, I find my own struggles shrinking. I become committed to walking by faith and I put myself in a position to become the hands of God in someone else’s life.

Remembering how I felt when I was in that place helps me to reach out and love those God has put in front me, without fear of being hurt or rejected. I’m willing to take that risk because if the people in my life hadn’t taken that step of faith, I’d not be where I am right now. And I don’t want to miss a single opportunity to be that saving influence in the life of another.

Let’s not hide from the people God wants to use in our lives.

And let’s not shrink back from the people God wants us to love in their own moments of struggle. 

Accept the help.

Be grateful.

love out of the overflow. 

​BE THE HANDS OF GOD. ​

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I don't doubt God is with me in the valley
But I believe He gave me you to remind me
The face of love, an answered prayer
The hands of God with me right here