The Arm of Our Help

UV 1739/10000 The Arm of Our Help
O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
Isaiah 33 v 2
The Lord is gracious as He does not expect any return favour or help when He comes to our help or aid. He is Ebenezer God or our one and only Helper. The help of other men is in vain. The arm of flesh can fail. The arm of flesh may disappoint us when we expect the help of man. The arm of flesh moves due to some selfish motive of quid pro quo. The arm of flesh helping us in our time of need can result in mutual bitterness. In contrast, the Lord is our arm of help every day. Our all- round help comes from Him. Every morning we need to approach His throne of grace with praise and thanksgiving. We need to avoid the attitude of complaining and murmuring. His spiritual power will be manifested through the work of our hands and the words of our lips. Our problems and worries will flee like flies from the fire. We need to chew the Word every morning and we will digest all our problems. We will be able to swallow our problems and challenges instead of being swallowed by these. We need to claim the amazing promises of the Lord and wait for their fulfilment in our lives.
We should be glad and rejoice in our salvation and not take it for granted or take it casually. We should remember the names of the Lord and draw strength from each name. We should recall the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We should confess our faults and failures in order to be redeemed of these. We should pour out our hearts to Him. As we do so, He will hear our cry and strengthen our hearts, implying that He will give us the right attitudes towards all and towards all our issues. Scripture says, “ Guard your heart diligently for out of it are the issues of life.” It implies that guarding or setting our heart right can be done only by the Lord. His Word is the plumb line of our hearts. It is the plumb line that sets our hearts or attitudes at the right angle to the Lord. Whatever we start with prayer will flourish in the end.
The Lord is our salvation in our time of trouble. We focus on Him just as a servant waits on his master to reward him. The servant will continue to work diligently, patiently, loyally and faithfully till the Master recognises his work. We need to focus on the Lord with faithful expectation, confidence and hope. Our souls wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning for when the day comes their duty of vigil ends. So also the end of our trouble comes when the Morning Star of Righteousness- Jesus rises on it. As the morning sun dispels the mist and fog, the plentiful redemption of the Lord will dispel our nagging worries and haunting issues. He restores us so that we are better off than before in every sense. He restores the years and times that the locusts of life’s worries and issues had destroyed. He comforts us so that we can in turn comfort those who are in similar trouble and encourage them with the same hope of salvation.

Prateep V Philip