As I stared at the huge mountain of problem right in front of me I thought to myself, it’s official, my life is over. No one can help me get out of this even if they wanted to or tried to help. I knew that the only One that could help me is God but I thought to myself, does He really want to? Will He even care enough to help me? Or will He say well you should have known better before you got yourself into this mess; sorry goodbye and slam the door in my face? Friends and family reassured me that God will help me, I just needed to pray. I said okay but deep inside of me I didn't believe them. I said sure it's just one of those things that Christians say to make you feel better. I thought to myself, I am in this alone.

I could not pray; not only did I not know how or what to pray about, I also felt like I have sinned against God so much that He won't answer my prayers. I'm sure many feel this way as well, and you have found yourself in a situation where you are now asking the same questions I did. Well I have good news for you....the answer is a resounding YES!!! Yes God will help you and Yes! God does want to help you. That's good news isn't it?

You see, though I wasn’t sure if God would ever show up for me, I chose to pray anyway. My prayer wasn’t by any means fancy or long or well crafted, but more like crying and trying to talk to God through my tears. I believe God saw and heard my desperate cries. Though some people say God is not moved by our tears, I believe that He is, especially if your tears are coming from a pained and desperate heart that is leaning on Him. Slowly but surely, He began revealing His love to me in different ways, leading me to confidently believe that He does care enough to help me. And He wants to do the same for you.

So yes, God will help you; however, you do have a role to play. You must pray, believe, and have faith. I repeat, you must pray to invite Him into the situation, believe and trust that He will, and have faith that He can. To top it all off, add praise to it. Praise Him even when you don’t feel like it; praise Him in the morning, noon, and night; praise Him even when thoughts tell you that you are wasting your time. Be like David in the bible and say

“I will praise the Lord at all times, I will constantly speak His praises” (Psalm 34:1).

His promise that He will help us is written in the Bible. If you don't believe me check it out for yourself. Get the bible and search for all the places where God has promised to help you; read it and meditate on it until it becomes real to you.

So there is no need to fear and wonder if He will help you. He has already promised us in the bible saying

“don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

What a promise!

There were also times when I pondered on how God was going to solve my problem because my small human mind could not fathom a way out. The more I think these thoughts, the greater the anxiety became. I quickly realized that this was just the enemy’s way of attacking my faith and trust in God. I knew I had to rest in the power and sovereignty of God. I had to totally surrender to Him, take my hands off and let Him control the wheel. Our job is not to know how God will do it; our job is to believe and have confidence that He will. He told us in Isaiah 55:9 that His “ways are not our ways" so don't waste your time and energy trying to figure out how He is going to solve the problem.

He is the all Powerful, all Knowing God; He created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it;

“even the winds and the waves obey Him” (Matthew 8:27)

and

“The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; He guides it wherever He pleases” (Proverbs 21:1).

This means that God controls all the elements and resources in the world, even the hearts of people; and He uses these channels to solve our problems. Trust Him to use whomever, whatever, wherever, and whenever to meet your needs.

God has always come through for me though not always on my timing or in the way I expected it, but He always shows up. So I want to encourage you today that whatever you may be facing, know that God will come through for you as well. You must persevere and not give up; don’t lose hope. When you give up, the enemy automatically wins. So hang in there, even during the darkest days and longest hours of the night, hang in there and don’t let go of God’s promises to you. Remember, it

“gives Him great happiness to bless you” (Luke 12:32).

“Now is the time, and now will always be your time, but I just don’t know which now it is”

What this means is that the time for God to help you, to help me is now but only He knows which “now” it is.

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” – Hebrews 4:16.

So to answer the question on how do you know God will help you in one sentence: when you draw near to Him through your prayer, praise, believe, trust, and faith, He will begin to show you and reveal His unfailing, unconditional love for you, and you will come to a place of knowing that He will definitely show up for you. In the coming weeks we will dig deeper into how we know God will help us and also how we engage God’s help. But for now, I leave you with this scripture:

I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy; No shadow of shame will darken their faces. In my desperation I prayed, And the Lord listened; He saved me from all my troubles. Psalm 34: 4-6 (NLT)

Remember, keep your hope in God for He loves you and has promised to never leave you nor forsake you!