Who Do You Look to for Help? - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - January 18

Who Do You Look to for Help?
By Keneesha Saunders- Liddie

I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? – Psalm 121:1

Late one evening after I arrived home from a long day of work, I started folding a huge pile of laundry. I know what you’re thinking. From work to work huh? Yes, that is the life of a working mom. My daughter, who just a few months ago started walking; was busy exercising her legs around my bedroom. She was just looking for something interesting to do.

So she decided to go into a tight little space between her crib and dressing table. Everything was fine while she was standing there. I guessed she felt safe being wedged between a folding chair that leaned against her crib and the dressing table. That was until she decided to sit down. I stood there and looked at her, she looked at me and smiled as I shook my head. It didn’t turn out well at all. She soon realized that she couldn’t get back up on her feet and she was stuck. The only thing left for her to do after she had tried to get up was to look up at me and cry.

She realized that the only way she was going to get out of the pickle she was in was to get my attention and request help. I am her mom and even though she disobeyed when I told her not to go there, doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and hear her wails and plea for help and turn a blind eye. No. I lovingly drew her out from under the chair and comforted her.

In our key scripture today David recognized where his help comes from. He looked upward. His faith was so firm and unshakeable he could look in the direction of the hills and have faith that the Creator God was his helper.

Sometimes, we wait until we are in a bind to ask God to help us. We allow the situation to reach to a point where we are so tangled and caught up that the only way out is to cry out to God for help. But God will hear and rescue us because he is Good and loving and merciful.

You might be in despair or you may be going through a tough situation where you feel ashamed and don’t even want to cry out for help. Remember that God isn’t like humans.

Where do you turn to for help?

Are you depending on yourself, your husband, your job, or your children? All of those choices have one thing in common. They can all fail you but Jesus will never fail you. As a matter of fact, he never slumbers or sleeps; he is always there ready to help and rescue you. No matter what.

Even though we may stray away from the plans that God has laid out for us he still wants us to draw close to him again. It’s why he wants us to pray and seek his face. The parable in the New Testament about the shepherd and his 100 sheep is relevant for you today.

God is displayed as the shepherd who left the fold. He really didn’t have to but he did. He left the fold and went looking for the sheep that went astray.

He heard the bleating cry of that one lost sheep and he went out of his way, left the 99 in the fold, and came and found you.

My daughter knew that her mom would come to the rescue, she knew that her cry would hurt my heart and I would take her out of the pain she was in. Do you believe that God is able to rescue you?

When we end up in situations that cause us to stray from the presence of God; instead of trying to help ourselves out of the situation, pray to God.

Sometimes, while trying to help ourselves we end up digging our pit deeper and deeper. Allow God to help you in every situation because in every area of life he was tempted as we are.

If you have strayed away from God and you’re in need of help cry out to God. Look up to the hills because that’s where your help is coming from.

Keneesha is a wife, mom and writer. She is an avid reader of wholesome romance novels and a lover of writing. She is hoping to one day add author to her list of accomplishments. As a pastor’s kid she fell in love with the way Jesus loved her at an early age and want to encourage others to live for him through her words. You can find more musings from her https://womenlovinggodsway.com.

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If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.

Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.

Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.

I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!