{"id":3458,"date":"2015-10-24T09:50:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T09:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2015-10-24T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T09:50:15","slug":"if-god-had-not-helped-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3458","title":{"rendered":"If God had not helped us!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>If God had not helped us!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was pushed back and about to fall \u2014 but\u00a0<strong>the Lord helped me!<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/kjv1900\/Psalm%20118.13\">Psalm 118:13<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The psalmist had been\u00a0<em>reviewing <\/em>his toils, his trials, and his dangers; he\u00a0<em>commemorates <\/em>his deliverances, his conquests, and his triumphs; and he ascribes the whole, to the\u00a0<em>help of God!<\/em>If God had not helped him \u2014 his\u00a0<em>faith <\/em>would have failed, his\u00a0<em>expectations <\/em>would have been disappointed, and his\u00a0<em>foes <\/em>would have prevailed. Through the Lord, he did valiantly; and now, with joyful heart, he records the loving-kindness of the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>How sweet to\u00a0<em>look back <\/em>upon the\u00a0<em>rough road<\/em>, the\u00a0<em>bloody battle-field<\/em>, the scenes of\u00a0<em>peculiar trial<\/em>. Then, if ever,\u00a0<em>gratitude <\/em>will work within us, and\u00a0<em>praises <\/em>will flow from our tongues and hearts. Delivered from the mouth of the lion, and the paw of the bear \u2014 we thankfully acknowledge,\u00a0<em>\u201cThe Lord helped me!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In looking back we see that we have\u00a0<em>needed <\/em>help \u2014 and more help than any\u00a0<em>mere creature<\/em>could afford us!<\/p>\n<p>The daily cross,<br \/>\nthe inward conflict,<br \/>\nthe domestic troubles,<br \/>\nthe perplexities of business,<br \/>\nthe state of the church,<br \/>\nthe affairs of the world \u2014<br \/>\nhave all combined to teach us that\u00a0<em>Divine help was necessary!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>If God had not helped us<\/strong> . . .<br \/>\nwe would have fallen into sin,<br \/>\nwe would have disgraced our profession,<br \/>\nwe would have been crushed by our foes,<br \/>\nwe would have fainted under our trials,<br \/>\nwe would have apostatized from the faith!<\/p>\n<p>God alone knows what would have been the result \u2014 if we had been left to our own resources. We needed help in infancy, in youth, in manhood. We needed help in prosperity \u2014 and in adversity! We needed help in temporals \u2014 and spirituals. We found our own\u00a0<em>strength \u2014 <\/em>to be weakness, and our own\u00a0<em>wisdom \u2014 <\/em>to be folly.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>feeblest of our foes \u2014 <\/em>would have been more than a match for us!<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>least corruption <\/em>in our hearts \u2014 would have overcome us!<\/p>\n<p>And we need help\u00a0<em>now \u2014 <\/em>as much as we ever did; for,\u00a0<em>unless the Lord helps us<\/em> . . .<br \/>\nour foes will yet triumph over us,<br \/>\nour crosses will yet prove to be too much for us,<br \/>\nand we shall yet faint in the day of adversity!<\/p>\n<p>The Lord has\u00a0<em>promised <\/em>help. He has said, \u201cFear not \u2014 for I am with you; be not dismayed \u2014 for I am your God! I will\u00a0<em>strengthen <\/em>you; yes, I will\u00a0<em>help <\/em>you; yes, I will\u00a0<em>uphold <\/em>you with the right hand of My righteousness!\u201d And because His people\u00a0<em>feel <\/em>themselves to be vile, weak, and incompetent; He stoops to speak to them according to their own views of themselves and says, \u201cDo not be afraid, O\u00a0<em>worm <\/em>Jacob, O\u00a0<em>little <\/em>Israel \u2014 for I Myself will help you! declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh, precious promise, of a good and gracious God!<br \/>\nIt extends to all\u00a0<em>times<\/em>,<br \/>\nit embraces all\u00a0<em>circumstances<\/em>,<br \/>\nit belongs to all\u00a0<em>believers<\/em>, and<br \/>\nit ensures us triumph over all our\u00a0<em>foes!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, the strength of Jesus has been perfected in our weakness! We have found His grace to be sufficient for us; and to the praise of His glorious grace, in reference to all our trials, troubles, and conflicts \u2014 we can truly say,\u00a0<em>\u201cThe Lord helped me!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Oh, beloved, it is an unspeakable mercy to have\u00a0<em>God <\/em>for our helper!<\/p>\n<p>James Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If God had not helped us! \u201cI was pushed back and about to fall \u2014 but\u00a0the Lord helped me!\u201d\u00a0Psalm 118:13 The psalmist had been\u00a0reviewing his toils, his trials, and his dangers; he\u00a0commemorates his deliverances, his conquests, and his triumphs; and he ascribes the whole, to the\u00a0help of God!If God had not helped him \u2014 his\u00a0faith [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,61,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-james-smith","category-believers-assurance","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3459,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions\/3459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}