Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 295 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Principles of Spiritual Growth – Help
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 295 of our trek. Yesterday we hiked on the 15th trail of this trek, which was the Trail of Rest. Today we will explore a trail that all of us occasionally require which is the Trail of Help.
There is a total of 18 trails on the trek we call the Principles of Spiritual Growth, which is adapted from a short book written by Miles J. Stanford. These practical lessons were instrumental in my spiritual growth as a young man seeking to create and live my legacy. As we continue on each trail of our overall trek, I trust that you will also find this information valuable in your own life, regardless of where you happen to be on your faith trek. Each of the trails that we hike builds on the previous one, so if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We drove up to Marietta on Saturday and arrived late Saturday evening. The daffodils are in full bloom and are beautiful. I have included a couple of pictures in today’s journal. It was cloudy and a bit rainy when we arrived, so I will try to get some additional pictures when it is sunny out this week. We do have a full week with work projects and renovation work ahead of us, so we will need to stay focused to meet our expectations. It does require coordination with Paula and me having a clear understanding of our individual strengths, so we can best serve our clients. We do not have to beg each other for help. We understand that help is available at all times. This allows us to maximize our effectiveness as we work closely with our clients assisting them with their businesses.
As we head out on our hike for today, an important aspect of our spiritual lives is to understand where our help comes from as we explore the Trail of Help. This is the 16th of 18 trails which makes up the Trek we call…
Principles of Spiritual Growth – Help
I would like to take a bit of a different approach to this concept of help. For most of us, it is time to stop asking God for help. He didn’t help us to be saved, and He doesn’t intend to help us live the Christian life. Now, this probably sounds somewhat far-reaching, but stay with me as I explain. We need to know and understand that God’s help has already been set aside for us. It is up to us to appropriate and apply that help to our lives each day. We do not have to continually beg for his help. His help is ours for the taking.
There is no question where our help comes from. Psalms 121:1-3 tells us, “I look up to the mountains, does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.”
As a Christ follower, it is not a matter of continually asking God for help. It is Christ living His life in us that already has provided all the help and strength that we will ever need. Hebrews 13:6 explains the confidence that we can have, “So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?’”
The evil one, Satan, wants to keep us in the place of continual defeat in our lives so that we remain ineffective. He wants us to be in the place where we are always asking for what God says He has already provided. This is a defeatist attitude that should not be part of our lives as Christ followers. This principle holds true for all aspects of our Christian life. In Christ, we are complete and have been provided with everything that we need. Colossians 2:9-10 says, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
We do not honor and bring glory to God by our continual begging for help for that which He has already provided to us. Philippians 4:19 reminds us of this truth, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
Our responsibility is to see in the Word all that is ours in Christ and then thank and trust Him for that which we need.
Dr. A. W. Tozer puts it this way, “We are forever asking God to do things that He either has already done or cannot do because of our unbelief. We plead for Him to speak when He has already spoken and is at that very moment speaking. We ask Him to come when He is already present and waiting for us to recognize Him. We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing Him by our doubts.”
Another area of weakness that we as Christ followers fall into is begging God to show us His will for our lives on matters that are clearly defined in His Word. We do not need to seek for guidance and direction in life, we need to know what is already proclaimed through knowing His Word. As we know His Word more fully, it will result in the fullness of Christ in our lives. Ephesians 3:19 provides further insight, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Let us not forget that since Christ is the Word, the more we know God’s Word, the more Christ lives in us. John 1:14 says, “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
While I do not adhere to the “name it and claim it” in theology, when we are in the thick of a spiritual battle, when we are the object of attack, plead less and claim more, on the ground of the blood of the Lord Jesus. We do not need to ask God to give us victory, but claim His victory to be manifested in us.
While the we do not have to beg for help, we do have to thankfully appropriate that which is already his in Christ, for Hebrews 10:38 tells us, “And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
God has already provided all that we need, it is up to us to appropriate by faith those promises as it says in Philippians 1:6, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
On our trek Principles for Spiritual Growth, today we learned on the Trail of Help that it is God who is our helper, and that help has already been provided to us. It is now our responsibility to appropriate that help in our lives on a daily basis.
Tomorrow we will move onto our next trail, which is the Trail of Cultivation. Every trail that we hike will help us to create and live our legacy each day. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!