What is our responsibility as Believers to each other? How involved should we be in people’s lives? Let us reverse these questions and ask ourselves how willing are we to open our lives to others? How much of our life are we willing to share? What about confessing our faults to each other? What about sharing our hurts and disappointments? What about asking for help? I know we all have a tendency to wear different masks when it comes to interacting with others. Some of us masquerade as spiritually mature individuals that have everything under control, when, in reality, we are anything but. The Laodiceans claimed they had it all together, when, in reality, they were “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
If God knows the truth about us, why keep up the charade? We may think we are fooling others, when, in reality, they see right through us; so why keep up the charade? We even have a hard time fooling ourselves, for the Holy Spirit within us has already revealed who we are; so why keep up the charade? When we try to hide our true condition we have fooled no one, so instead of walking wounded, let us face up to our true condition and seek the help of our Lord and His servants.
One of the hardest things for some Christians to do is ask for help. When are we going to understand that if playing the role of the “lone ranger” is not working, we need to try something else! Someone said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. When are we going to understand that we have been placed in the Body of Christ to complement each other? When we only function as a part of a whole, we need to learn to open ourselves to others. I am not talking about complete transparency, for there are areas of our lives that should be only between ourselves and God. But when it comes to achieving what God has for us, we must we willing to ask for help when the need arises. We may be willing to assist others, but we also need to be willing to accept help.
How many of us have felt disappointment and discouragement in our Christian walk? How many of us have given ourselves a self-pity party where “me, myself and I” dwell on the negatives in life? How many of us wonder why nobody has called us during our times of crisis? How many of us have been tempted to curtail our Bible reading or prayer time because God doesn’t seem to be interested in us? Maybe the answer to so many of these questions is that we have not told anybody what we are going through. Maybe God is waiting for us to implement our “escape clause” or “get out of jail” card. God has made provisions for us to rise above our problems; all we have to do is open the Word and follow the directions.
Let us remember that our negative situations in life are not unique. There are others that have gone through the same trials we are experiencing. If we find ourselves in a self-imposed exile, let us hoist our distress flag so others will see our need and rush to help. Don’t be afraid to send out the SOS, for there is an army of Kingdom people that are willing to help!!
One more thing: the Bible teaches us that as we are comforted in our times of trouble, we are then to look for those who are going through similar problems and comfort them!! (II Corinthians 1:4)