Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Does it offend you because you did not ask for it?

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 31, 2019

When someone offers to pay for something you need, do you allow your pride to reject the offer? Does it offend you because you did not ask for it?

Too many times we do not believe we deserve help, even though we know we need it. If we decide to go-it-alone, we remain where we are, suffering within the darkness we created. It suffocates hope.

The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5

We have been conditioned to believe that we need to get right with God in order for Him to hear us, see us suffering and then solve our problems. The truth is, God does hear you, see you and He also knows what you are going through. 

Is He trying to open your eyes so you see Him? Open your ears so you hear Him? Trying to guide you to the answers you seek?

After Jesus was crucified, there was a man named Saul. He did not believe Jesus was the Son of God and all of those who believe He was, were worthy of death.

9 “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ACTS 26:9-18

Saul saw the light and he was made blind so he could see how to help others find the way out of their own darkness. The thing is, he did not ask for it. He did not seek it and on the surface, he did not deserve it, but Jesus saw what was within him and made the offer.

Saul could have let his pride reject the offer. Is is because his eyes were opened enough to know that he had been wrong all along? Did he think of all of those he hunted down while he was wrong and they were right?

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7

No one is without sin, but time and time again, we have seen miracles happen. When we ask for help, God hears us. He sends the answer to us, or sends help to come to us. Sometimes those He sends, do not hear Him. Sometimes they do not go where they are led. Sometimes they postpone doing what God wants them to do. And we wait suffering wondering why God did not hear us. 

In those dark moments remember all the other times He proved He heard you and cared about what you were going through when help finally came. Remember He does not wave a wand to produce all you want and cannot mess with the freewill of others. If those He called upon to help you, do not respond, He sends someone else in their place.

My own freewill gets in the way sometimes and I reject what God is asking me to do. This post is because this morning when I started my computer, there were some images on my background. I did not remember what they were, so I opened them in Photoshop. The image above started this post because I knew I had to do it, so that someone who needed to find it, would find what they were looking for.

The following video is one more example of my unwillingness to do what God asked of me. I fought Him for months but the song kept playing in my head and the images popped into my brain. I surrendered. I hope it helps you!