Help Us Up

Ecclesiastes 4:10 “If either of them falls down, one can help the other the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

Have you ever found yourself in a moment where you feel like you are all alone? Have you ever been to a point where no matter how bad you want to feel better, the efforts just seem worthless? Well, I am here to tell you that I have been there, but I am also here to tell you that there is a way out. Touching a bit on my post from last week, I found a lot of encouragement in this verse as it has helped me seek that renewed mindset. If you have not read my previous blog post, I encourage you to read that as well!

But back to the idea. So this last weekend in church we have been talking about relationships. And our pastor Todd Clark was talking about us being able to rely on our partners. Relying on people in a way that we are putting our knowledge of them, our trust in them, in situations that we can count on them to be there for us. Now to some people because of who you have around you, this is easy to rely on someone. It almost is second nature because of that core group of people you have around you. They are someone you love, someone you trust, someone you know is not going to burn you. However, for some of us we either have a group of people around us who we may not trust, we may not know that well, or maybe we just do not have someone around us to rely on.

In today’s culture, Todd used a perfect example that I wanted to share with you all this morning. It is coined in the phrase “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” That phrase has a lot of weight to it when you think about it. People in this world like I mentioned before, either have two types of mindsets. We either have the idea that we can know and trust and rely on others, and the other is that we feel like we are better off alone.

Today, I just wanted to really encourage you in what that verse talks about, and some truths I was reminded of this weekend from my service. We were created to rely on other people. We were created for community. We were created to be a support system for others. Now I know this way of thinking can be hard for some, because like I mentioned before, maybe it is hard for you to trust others and rely on them. Maybe before you have been burned before, and like that phrase before you would rather “do it yourself”.

I am here to tell you that although you have totally true feelings and those are definitely worth looking into. Doing life by yourself can be something very dangerous to you. I will speak from my own life experience, and just say that in the darkest times of my life. I felt alone. Nothing and I mean nothing, seemed to help me. And the system I did have around me, I was not allowing them to pick me back up. I allowed myself to feel truly alone.

Pointing back to Ecc 4:10, it talks to us about having someone there to help us up. We need that help. We need to be able to lean on someone when things get too hard for us by ourselves. We are supposed to be able to rely on one another to help us in our darkest times. We are there so someone else will not fall. When we fall, we are there for someone else to pick them up, dust them off, and continue with them in our walks.

In your life, do you feel like you have people in your life you can rely on?

In your life, do you feel like you would rather “do things yourself”?

How can you find ways to build trust, build a support system, and even be relied upon?

I pray for this week. I pray that in the midst of moments we all go through, no matter how simple or how complex. That in this week, we find moments where it is clear to us that we are not in this alone. And for those times that we may feel alone, God I pray for those reading this that we all can feel you in our life in some way. I pray we can feel you working in us directly, or maybe even through someone around us. I pray that in the moments where we feel like we have fallen, that you can be that support system that won’t let us stay down. But lift us up. Remind us that with you, we can always rely on you. ~ Amen.