Letting God Help
``DO it yourself'' has become a popular saying, and self-reliance gives a certain sense of satisfaction and independence within limited human objectives. But there are times when most people find that something they have to tackle is beyond their own strength and resources; when they find that they just don't seem to have what it takes to do the job themselves. One answer is to be willing to let God help. The greatest strength is more than physical or mental stamina. It's spiritual in nature, a reflection of divine power, and it never gets exhausted. Looking to the might of God in time of need, we come to see that we aren't really self- centered material personalities. Actually, our true selfhood, as the outcome of God, Spirit, is spiritual, and our very purpose is to express the divine nature. Understanding this enables us to accomplish more. It gives a new dimension to self-fulfillment.
The Bible assures us, ``They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.'' 1 This kind of waiting isn't a time process, and it isn't sitting back with folded hands and leaving everything to God. It's being receptive to God, accepting His authority, deferring to His judgment, feeling His strength. The result of this is much more than just not feeling inadequate or tired or sick. We're helping to fulfill a divine purpose--the bringing to light of God's perfect, harmonious government of His creation.
What stops us from being more willing to do this waiting? Perhaps we want to go it alone because of a personal sense of ego and achievement. Perhaps we don't quite know what God is like, and how much He can help and strengthen us. This is where prayer comes in--not prayer simply to get the things we currently think we want, but prayer impelled by a desire for divine strength, wisdom, and purposefulness to become more apparent in our lives.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives a description of man, of our true selfhood, part of which reads: ``. . . the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.'' 2
Clearly, Christ Jesus looked to God as the source of all his capabilities. He said: ``The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.'' 3 And Jesus said this just after he had healed a crippled man. To the Way-shower, healing was the natural outcome of willing reliance on God, and to rely on God is the prerogative of all individuals.
Many of the strains and tensions and physical disabilities that seem prevalent today can be healed by our being more willing to let God help us, to realize that we're really inseparable from His perfection and might. His strength enables us to handle the utilitarian tasks as well as the more exalted ones. Our aim, then, is not just to try doing something ourselves by becoming stronger-minded mortals, but to draw more freely on the one divine Mind and let its inexhaustible spiritual power invigorate and activate us. This more spiritual sense of strength permeates our thought and then our bodies.
And we don't have to wait until we have exhausted our own capacity before we turn to God for help. It's much better to turn to God habitually at the outset of every task. He is, after all, the only genuine source of our health and strength.
1 Isaiah 40:31. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 475. 3 John 5:19, 20. DAILY BIBLE VERSE It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. Psalms 18:32