The Danger in Helping Too Much

Photo credit: flickr.com

Blessings can sometimes turn to a curse in one’s life. Even kindness may be overdone. One may be too gentle. Love may hold others back from their purpose and wreck their destinies. There are times when in the process loving others we meddle with God’s discipline for them.

Of course, we are to be helpful to others. No aim should be put higher in our life-plans than that of personal helpfulness. The motto of the true Christian cannot be other than that of the Master: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

Even in the ambition to gather and retain wealth, the spirit of the desire must be, if we are Christians at all, that thereby we may become more helpful to others; that through, or by means of, our wealth, we may be enabled to do larger and greater good. Whatever gift, power, or possession we have that we do not seek to use in this way is not yet truly devoted to God.

There are many ways to help others, yet too often most people think if you are not giving material things out, you are not helping, yet the truest and best help anyone can give to others is not in material things, but in ways that make them stronger and better. Money is good alms when money is really needed, but in comparison with the divine gifts of hope, friendship, courage, sympathy, and love, it is paltry and poor.

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Don’t Look Too Far For Things Close By

“How terrible it will be for those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the chariot, because there are so many, and in charioteers, because they are so strong— but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek the LORD!” – Isaiah 31:1

The world over, even in the most developed and wealthy nations, you still find people who believe that other cities, states, or countries hold better opportunities for them. This mentality is gradually taking over the spirit of self-reliance and courage. Right where you are there are very many successful people, and there are also those who believe that “out there” is; where the main thing is happening, where the big pay is, where their success lie.

The world is full of opportunities. Even the deserts and oceans have opportunities for those who will take them. But, some of us have become like the pilgrim described in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s progress” who was locked in the dungeon of Giant Despair’s castle, and had the key of deliverance all the time with him but had forgotten about it and kept praying for God’s deliverance, until he remembered that he had the keys to the gates