29 Ways People Who Live in Peace and Safety Need God’s Help Right NOW

Unless you live under the current threats of ISIS or Ebola, this is what your life looks like:

You wake up. Live your life. Go to sleep.

Wake up. Live.

Sleep.

Wake…

And if you’re average like me, hardly one of the thousands of thoughts that occupy your attention during the living is of God.

And yet, God is near, like your shadow on a bright day, ever-present with you. Inescapable. Helping. Now.

The theologians call this God’s immanence. There He is—our silent, unnoticed Companion, pervading and sustaining every moment of our waking, living, sleeping.

If He withdrew Himself, even for a moment, the shock of open-eyed, naked vulnerability would undo us.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.—Genesis 3:7, ESV

Ever since that moment recorded in Genesis, the world is a hostile place, and we can not help ourselves. Even if we don’t live in a war zone or distaster zone, we need God’s help, whether this wisdom occurs to us or not.

This wisdom didn’t occur to some Christians long ago, and here’s what Jesus had to say to them:

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.—Revelation 3:17, ESV

I think the lesson here is that being senseless of our need is the worst symptom of our abject neediness. Therefore, we need God’s light to see that we are blind. We need God’s voice to teach us we are deaf. We need God’s life to realize we have been, we would be, dead without Him.

Here are just 29 ways I have found that I need God’s help right now. Perhaps you feel some of these, too.

❯ I Need God’s Help Right Now To…

⟩ Give me breath and life and health.

⟩ Give me daily food and shelter.

⟩ Give me peaceful sleep and let me awake to receive a new day from Him.

⟩ Give me work and purpose and satisfaction in life.

⟩ Protect me from every danger seen, and unseen.

⟩ Begin to recognize the height and depth of my need of Him.

⟩ Comprehend how He is helping me right now.

⟩ Help me stop thinking I can take care of myself just fine, thank you.

⟩ Redeem and the re-order the mess I made of my life.

⟩ Teach me to hope in Him where I tend toward despair.

⟩ Comfort me when I remember people die. Loved ones. Me. Everyone.

⟩ Give me courage when life frightens me.

⟩ Give me confidence when I feel insecure at work.

⟩ Still my darling’s anxious thoughts, and let me be His comfort to her.

⟩ Show me how to father three children at different stages of life.

⟩ Protect those I love and cannot protect.

⟩ Obey His moral law since my bent is toward all kinds of hate, lust, selfishness, greed, and idolatry.

⟩ Forgive my sins which are a torrent of disregard for Him.

⟩ Assure me of His strong, strong love when I wonder.

⟩ Preserve my soul from a powerful, evil enemy.

⟩ Instruct me in how I may please Him.

⟩ Guard my tongue so I don’t say the all foolish things in my head.

⟩ Remind me that you are my fellow; we come from the same dust.

⟩ Teach me humility where I tend toward arrogance.

⟩ Teach me wisdom from hardship where I tend toward bitterness.

⟩ Teach me to be content with the averageness of life, and wait patiently for a better one.

⟩ Live as a Christ-follower, an ambassador of His kingdom, a messenger, salt, and light.

⟩ Honor Him with my life. And death.

⟩ Fully enjoy all He is and does and gives.

Father, I thank you for your help. It is an ever-present gift to all through providence, and an everlasting grace through the redemption you accomplished in Christ for every average, helpless person who places all their hope in You. Average Us.

Amen.