Have you ever said to your body" Hey I am tired, stop doing stuff so I can get some rest." Of course not. The body knows when it's time to rest. Our eyes get heavy and we slow down as our bodies prepare to rejuvenate by sleeping. That is how God designed us. He also made us for relationship with him. One aspect of that relationship is his promise to help. It is pretty one sided because God is never in need. Us independant folks can run into problems with this and can feel uncomfortable about praying to God about something we feel we can handle ourselves.

Once there was a King named Asa. He was a pretty good king. He got rid of the worship of false gods in his kingdom even removing his grandmother from her role as Queen Mother because she wanted to worship a false god. One day an enemy came with an army of three million men to war against Asa. King Asa prayed to God. He told God in his prayer there is no one who can help but you God. (2 Chronicles 14:11)

Have you ever been there? Probably because trouble is common like rain. When King Asa asked God for help God gave it because Asa followed God.

God had given King Asa this wonderful victory over a huge enemy. Later trouble rose again but King Asa didn’t pray or ask for God's help. He decided to handle it on his own. He took treasures from the temple and paid another King to help him out. This displeased God and King Asa’s enemy escaped. God sent a prophet to explain to Asa why he failed.

"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars." 2 Chronicles 16:8-9.

Asa  wasn’t perfect, but if he had just stopped trying to fix it alone I have no doubt he would've been victorious a second time. Look at how the verse above says, God looks on the earth for those He can strongly support. How great is that!

Last week I found myself murmuring and complaining. I knew I was wrong but I couldn't seem to stop. I had diarrhea of the mouth. Very soon I saw the the power to succeed fading. I was stumbling with things that normally would be easy for me. I became perplexed, upset and worried that I, like others who didn’t work out, would get the call not to come back to the job. Like Asa I neglected to seek God’s help and just tried to work it out on my own. When Friday came around I was a crying exhausted mess. Why? Because I didn’t ask for God’s help. I just keep trying to push through, manage it, and rely on my own wits. I have repented of that.

Think of it this way. You're married. Your spouse is great, always willing to help and pitch in. One day after work your car breaks down on the highway in the rain. You have a phone but you don't call your spouse to pick you up instead you turn the phone off. You tinker with the car and nothing works. You're stuck. In  frustatration you swear at the car. It's getting dark and it's miles from your home.  If you just walk in the shoulder and wait for traffic to clear you might make it home in a couple of hours. Trucks and cars are zooming by and you know you are in danger of being hit. You think of how you should've taken your spouse up on the offer to take the car in for a tune up last week. So why bother your spouse now. You finally make it home. Hours late, you stumble in.Your feet are blistered from walking in your dress shoes. Your suit is wet and dirty. Your spouse, alarmed  by your appearance runs over and embraces you. You explain about the car. What does your spouse say?  You guessed it. Why didn't you call me? You say, I just didn't want to bother you.  A look of hurt passes across the face of your spouse. Why?  Because you don't understand how much they love you.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

I think God is like that when we don't ask for help. He knows you really don't get how much he loves you. He desires to show you how much. God never intended us to handle this life on our own.  No more than we would expect a three year old to make his own dinner, or drive himself to daycare.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10

Our Father wants to help us with everything. Let him.  Go to him over and over and over and over and over and then over again.  His supply is limitless, his love matchless, his patience boundless, his mercy new every morning.  It doesn't matter the size of the problem. This is the God of heaven, who as my friend Jane reminded me on her blog, numbered the very hairs on your head. Why would God do that? Because he wants you to know there is nothing to small or too great to ask for his help.