Support
Friends, we have been in the thick of it now for over a year with the hard that COVID has brought. Our realities have and continue to change weekly if not daily. It’s scary, but that’s ok, as long as you don’t let that feeling consume you.
Recently, a word keeps coming into my thoughts. That word is support. Questions like do you offer support? Who or what do you look to for support? What do you do when something hard comes?
As you know the word support, is a verb that requires action. Whether we realize it or not, for most of us this word occurs throughout our day to day activity. Many of us may associate support with finances and there is nothing wrong with that, but I’m going to challenge us to think about this word in the context of relationships.
In different seasons of our lives we may be the person supporting or we may be the one needing support. Regardless, none of this can happen if we don’t allow others in our lives. We need to remember that everyone has different spiritual gifts. That’s how God created us. It drives me crazy that we get blasted in today’s society to “be tough,” “work harder,” “drink a Monster and you’ll be fine.” Our world has tainted the concept of support and community to the point that asking for support makes us feel like we are inadequate and weak. Dear sisters the devil is a liar, and this is a lie.
Let’s look in Exodus chapter 17: 8-16. I won’t share all of that here, but the context is this. Moses was a prophet who led his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. However, they spent 40 years in the desert because some didn’t believe they could take over the land God had promised them. Here in chapter 17 the people are camped out at Rephidim and have been without water. They are pretty mad at Moses and ready to kill him for freeing them and bringing them here with no water. Say what?! Yup that’s right, they are mad they aren’t slaves anymore.
God instructs Moses and he takes some of the elders and taps on a rock with his staff and water comes. Shortly after this the Amalekites began to attack Rephidim. Moses told Joshua, his soon to be successor, to choose some of his men and go out and fight.
So here we are in verse 10-12, “So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron (his brother) and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.”
Did you see what happened here? Even Moses, a great prophet, the guy who parted the Red Sea, he needed support! We all need support and should also be giving support. Because of the support Moses was given by his brother Aaron and Hur, Joshua was able to win the battle against the Amalekites.
Friends, I want to challenge you this week to ask yourself a few questions. Are you too prideful to ask for help? Do you keep your eyes open to see who God has placed in your life to support. Let’s all try to be intentional towards one another. Don’t miss out on the joy that can be had from offering and receiving support.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life book of the bible. Lord, continue to mold our hearts and help our focus to shift from earthly things to the people on this earth. Help us to be ok asking for support and free us of excuses as to why we cannot support others. It’s in your name we pray, Amen.