We have met the word ‘helper’ before in Hebrews 2:18. The same word in the same word group is translated ‘succour’. The original Greek is a compound word which describes, in its origin, ‘one who runs to the cry.’ The Lord is the one who runs to the aid of those who cry. So you have got to pray. You have got to ask, to ask with real need and desire, ‘Oh Lord, without Thee I cannot succeed in this thing. Bless me and help me. Relieve this problem, strengthen me, give me aid, see me through.’ Whatever it is. It must be something of a plaintive cry, a genuine cry. The Lord is the one who runs to the aid instantly, with eagerness, and blesses the person according to the degree of sincerity of the cry.
It is not a word of total deliverance or relief. There is always something for us to do. In the Christian life, we are strengthened, we are enabled. We do not pray, ‘Lord help me’, so that the burden is totally gone, everything is done, there is nothing for me to do. As I apply myself to my circumstances, God will see me through. He may cause my problems to melt before me in some degree; he may cause me to be twice the person I would otherwise be, but he will help me, and his help will be perfect. As he helps me, he will train me and bless me, and he will use me. With such privileges as this, what do we need more and more of earthly things for?
Sometimes the help of God comes in instalments. As he succours, he does so instantly, and yet he does so in instalments to encourage us to pray. That makes us depend on him the more. Often the help comes in a surprising form. If prayer seems to go unanswered, it only means that God’s wisdom is at work, and the response is going to be somewhat surprising – a perfect response, but not one that we would have thought of.
We have a duty to say, ‘The Lord is my helper.’. This is not a luxury, something we say to comfort ourselves. As Christian people, we have an absolute duty to manifest the attitude which effectively says, ‘I know the Lord is my helper.’ That is our assignment: to exercise faith in these things. We say it in times of temptations. I will cast myself upon him. We say it when we are depressed. We say it in times of complexity and confusion. We say it when we are afraid. We say it in fatigue, when everything is too much for us. We say it in circumstances of witness, and especially hard witness. The people who seem to have, in earthly terms, all the advantages, all the gifts and benefits of money and education – they cannot say this, if they are not believers, but the poorest, weakest, most needy believer can say as an affirmation – ‘The Lord is my helper’, and that is a great antidote to covetousness.