Comfort in Helping Others & Boldly Asking for God’s Help Purity 1815

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Good morning. Today's photo of a rustic barn in the shadows of the horizon as the sunrise sky of a new day is painted orange, purple, and pink by the light of a new day comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this beauty on social media back on December 7th, 2021. Well, it's Saturday, and as I continue to do battle with the emotional aftermath of losing my job earlier this week, I'm finding solace in the fact of God's faithfulness and am looking forward to serving His Kingdom by facilitating another Freedom Appointment in a couple of hours. One of the ways we can find comfort when we are feeling down is by helping others. So it is my hope that God will use this morning's Freedom appointment to help the participant to find new levels of freedom and to remind myself that even though I have been separated from my former career, I can't be separated from the love of God and that God can still use me to help others. Even the world encourages us to help others when we are feeling down. Uh, Ralph W— Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, and to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." Albert Schweitzer chimes in, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." And William Arthur Ward said, "We make a living by what we get, "but we make a life by what we give." These quotes all point us to the joy that we can find through serving others, but it has also been said that you can't give what you don't have. If we want to give comfort, we first have— we should first receive comfort, and the only true comfort comes from God. As 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 shows us where comfort gets its source, as it says, "All praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others when they are troubled. We will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. Helping others is part of God's plan to love our neighbors as ourselves, but we first need to receive his love, mercy, and grace in order to give comfort. So if you're feeling down, go boldly to God to receive the comfort of his loving presence, mercy, and grace. He will lift you up when you submit to him, and he will cause you to be a light in the darkness for others when you reflect his love and light. Speaking of going boldly before the Lord to receive his help, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today talks about receiving our help from the Lord, and I am sharing it on the blog today to remind us that we can always go to God to ask for help in prayer. Dr. David Jeremiah writes, how great is answered prayer? And he shares Hebrews 4:16, which says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And David Jeremiah writes, we have all found ourselves standing outside the door, literal, literal or figurative, of a person for whom we need from whom we need help. Our hand is raised to knock but remains frozen in the air. Why? Perhaps we don't feel worthy or fear getting no for an answer. If we fear asking a fellow human for help, how much more likely are we to fear asking God? And yet we are encouraged to ask with boldness. How is it possible that we, in spite of our unworthiness and are encouraged to enter God's presence in prayer, it is only because of Christ, whose blood has cleansed us from our sin and made us worthy to stand in God's presence. To fear asking God for help is to diminish the greatness of what Christ has done for us. Consider how an earthly parent would feel if his or her child feared asking for help. How much more does God welcome us to lay our needs before him? And avail yourself today of the privilege of prayer. It is surely the greatest of our earthly blessings. That was from David Jeremiah. But he also shares a quote from J.A. Bengel which says, anxiety and prayer are more opposed to each other than fire and water. So yeah, don't be afraid to pray. I say amen. You know, after the mistakes we've made and the bad things that we've done, we can easily beat up our— beat ourselves up and even find Even though we find ourselves in need of help, we can be too afraid or ashamed to ask, ask for it. When we consider our sin, we figure that we either aren't worthy of receiving help or that there is no way that anyone will forgive us or want to associate with us enough to actually want to help us. Although we need help, we can be hesitant to ask for it. But that's not the way things work in God's kingdom. When you put your faith in Jesus, your sins are forgiven. And God declares that you are worthy of help. The verse before Hebrews 4:16, which tells us to come boldly before God's throne to receive mercy and grace to help us in time of need— that basically says God implores us to not be shy in approaching him to ask for his help. You know, that verse, the one before it, tells us that Jesus is our high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. He cares about us, he sympathizes with us, and then calls us to come to him to ask for mercy and grace in times of need. So don't hesitate or feel you are unworthy. God has accepted you through your faith in Jesus and invites you into his presence to ask for help. So make your needs known, pray for the Lord's help, and wait on him to give you the help you need. I can't guarantee the answer to your prayer will be immediate or in the way you expect, although it could be, so ask. But I can guarantee that God will be with you while you wait and see how he will move all things together for your good. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crowes. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on persecution. Today's verse is Galatians 6:13. 6:12, which says, those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Today's verse falls under the 13th point of our Counseling Reference Guides Resources section on persecution, uh, which says some compromise the gospel to avoid persecution. Don't be like that. Today's Bible verse warns us of those who would seek to corrupt our faith with unnecessary requirements and to not be afraid— and then to not be afraid of those who would threaten persecution for non-compliance. In our modern culture, the secular society encourages us to accept other religions as equally valid as Christianity and accuses Christians of not being loving when they fail to condone sinful lifestyles. The compromise would be to the gospel, to deny the exclusivity of Christ, to agree with the lie that there are many pathways to God. The distortion that the world wants us to accept— you know, wants us to accept— the distortion that the world wants us to accept is that God doesn't care about sin, that he accepts everyone regardless of what they believe and regardless of how they live. The word of God, of course, tells us the opposite. Jesus is the only way to God, and those who claim to follow Jesus agree to live holy and righteous lives. When we disagree with the world, it threatens to punish or reject us and attempts to tempt us to compromise our faith with promises of peace. Well, we are not to be afraid of persecution and should instead stand for the truth, uh, of the one who saved us. Don't agree with the world's lies to avoid persecution. God stands by those who stand by him, even when the world hates you like it hated Jesus. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. And today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 314, where Adams shares a portion of Acts 14:15, which says, "Turn from these empty things to a living God." And J.E. Adams writes, that was the message that Paul and Barnabas proclaimed when comforted with stark idolatry. Are confronted with stark idolatry. The people at Lystra, seeing a miracle, were ready to sacrifice to the apostles as gods. There was an ancient tradition that Zeus and Hermes had visited the city in the past, and the people thought that the two gods had returned. But the accolades didn't last very long. Jews from Antioch and Iconium followed Paul and persuaded the people of Lystra to stone him. Paul was so battered that they supposed him dead, but the converts surrounded him and he was able to return to the city and was able to bring many to faith. Whether or not he was miraculously healed is not indicated, but even stoning didn't curtail Paul's ministry. The apostles returned to the cities that had previously rejected them to strengthen their converts. Such boldness, courage, and dedication Do you and your church have it today? Oh man, and that is the question. Um, yeah, we're not to compromise our faith. Um, we can't agree to disagree in some matters, um, you know, especially when it comes to eternal salvation. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and we have to let people know that. See, there are no other pathways to God except for Jesus. And as for our— the way we live You know, oh, you got to do this to be approved. No, you have to put your faith in Jesus to be approved. Circumcision is not going to do it. And likewise, you know, having greasy grace, saying, oh, it doesn't matter how you live, God forgives anything. Well, he does, but he doesn't exactly— you know, a true convert of, uh, the Lord Jesus wouldn't live in a lifestyle of sin. They live in a lifestyle that would reflect God's light. And so that is why we always ask the question One of the reasons why, anyway. Have you fully surrendered to God? Are you walking the walk and talking the talk of a disciple of Jesus Christ? I know it's not always easy, and yes, we will, you know, not do it perfectly, but God calls us to live a life that reflects his truth. And we encourage that because we realize that it is the pathway to purpose and peace. Even in the midst of great trials, we can have peace because of the truth of what God tells us. And one of the places we give out that truth is at the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church that meets on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 PM. We encourage you to come on down to join our Christian recovery and discipleship fellowship this week, and we hope to see you there. Speaking of Celebrate Freedom, did you know I wrote two books with Celebrate Freedom in the title? I did. And they're both on Amazon. I encourage you to go there and purchase them today. And if you need other encouragements, you can find them through our podcast. We try to encourage people to follow the Lord one way or another, more or less every day. And you can find a playlist of all the messages we've done on YouTube or mtforchrist.com. We have other playlists of our other teachings we've done in the past. And our weekly Bible study. So we do this to encourage you in your faith because we believe if you follow the Lord, you'll grow in your freedom in Christ. And if you appreciate what we're trying to do here, we'd appreciate your help. You can go to mtforchrist.com and make a donation to support our ministry today. And finally, we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? What does that mean? Well, it just means, are you trying to empty yourself of the things of this world and be filled by the things of God of the Holy Spirit. And, um, you know, we encourage that because you'll find, you know, the world corrupts, whereas God equips and, and builds us up. So we encourage you to, uh, go to the Lord and pray and to follow his lead. We know that prayer works, and that's why we pray every day. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity to lead someone through the steps to freedom in Christ today. We pray for that person today that you'd prepare hearts and minds to come to you in repentance and prayer. Lord, we just pray for you to do a mighty work in their life today and to use us. Lord, we pray for your encouragement, your, your, uh, your power to help us navigate this difficult time and to show us the way forward with a new career. Lord, help me to rest and trust you. And directing my path. And, uh, Lord, we also pray for anyone reading, listening, or watching this message, Lord, that you come alongside them, their prayer requests and their walk of faith too. Um, they might, uh, they need your help too, Lord. We're asking, um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.