Asking for Help
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
The weekly Bible study I hosted in my home was two hours away and my driveway was buried in snow. It needed to be cleared before people arrived.
I could just start shoveling, I told myself. But before my husband went underway, he had said, “Remember, if you need anything, the EO [engineering officer] is staying home this time. If it snows, he can plow out the driveway for you.” But I had never asked anyone for help when my husband was at sea before.
Once I finally asked the EO to plow me out, the job was done in about ten minutes. I was ashamed at myself for needing to beat back my pride and allow someone else to help me.
We are called military “dependents,” and yet we have to be extremely independent when our husbands are off serving the country. It’s fitting for us to be self-confident and competent women, ready to tackle the obstacles that crop up in our path. We wouldn’t survive otherwise! But I discovered that I was becoming overly self-reliant. In an effort to not appear “weak,” I was unwilling to humbly admit that I couldn’t do everything in my own strength. Pride was stealthily taking root in my heart.
There are times in every military wife’s life when she could use a helping hand—whether or not she wants to admit it and actually ask for it. Paul had the opposite point of view. “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). When we are weak, Christ can take over for and give us His strength, glorifying His name in the process.
We need to humbly invite God to enable us to live through His power (Philippians 4:13), and the way that we do that is by staying connected to Him as the vine, the source of life. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). If we were to cut ourselves off from the vine in order to prove just how independent we were, it would spell certain death for us.
We also must recognize that when we ask for help from God, he often meets our needs through the community around us. Most people are eager to help—I bet you are the same way. How often have we though, “I wish there was something I could do for that family,” but didn’t follow through because we didn’t know what to do? Nothing will happen unless you let the people around you know your specific needs. When you do ask God and your community for support, you will be amazed at the blessings that have been waiting for you!
Ask
Is my reluctance to ask for help a sign of pride in my own self-reliance?
Is there something I could be asking for help with this week?
Pray
Lord,
Forgive me if I have been trying to live life so much in my own strength that I have been denying You the chance to fill me with Yours. Remind me daily that You are the vine, I am the branch. Without You, I cannot live. Show me how you’d like to bless me through my community, and give me the humility to ask for it.
Amen.
*The above devotion is an excerpt from the book Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (Moody Publishers 2008). Visit the Faith Deployed blog and bookstore.
