Jan 10, 2026 – Receiving
It’s pretty difficult for some of us to accept help. In this area, I think people are happier giving than receiving. No one wants to have to rely on anyone else for things they should be able to do for themselves. But, sometimes, we all need help. And, most times, people want to help. And, all the time, it blesses the helper when we let them.
I learned this soundly when I was on bedrest doing my part to bring my boys safely into the world. There were three lives in the balance (theirs and mine), plus the care of my four-year-old daughter and the sanity of my then husband, not to mention the peace it gave my parents, who lived over 700 miles away (with my father also basically on bedrest after surgery), knowing I was getting help.
Before the bedrest, when someone had a new baby or was recovering from an illness or injury or anything that seemed to require a casserole and caring, I did my best to check in on them and always sincerely offered, “Let me know if you need anything.” If we could take a poll of how many potential receivers made the call to someone after an offer like that, we’d probably wonder if the pollster had gone for coffee rather than doing the work.
Most of us don’t want help (more specifically, to be a burden) and we certainly don’t want to ask for it when we need it. Sometimes we don’t even know what kind of help we need. And that’s what I learned on bedrest from the few sweet women in my Sunday school class who called and said, “I’m bringing….” They didn’t ask what I needed. They just made the casseroles etc and brought them over and offered help while they were here.
My aunt (my mother’s sister) and my sister each took a turn staying with us during those months, taking care of everything I couldn’t handle from the couch, until just before the boys were born when my mother was able to get here (because my sister then went to take care of our father). Sometimes we have to say yes; sometimes I think God allows us to get in situations so we will understand and appreciate the yes which enables us to see better how to offer help without others having to choke on their yes. Did I mention that during all of the bedrest and the help, we were remodeling our house on the hill that was originally built in 1934? It, and the fire that happened three months after the boys were born (when the remodeling was still going on), is a story for another time!
When I came in from taking Ranger out this morning (I couldn’t let him out in the nicely fenced-in backyard because he would stay out in the rain patrolling the yard well beyond the time he should come back in to keep from getting soaked), I noticed my flip calendar that I haven’t flipped yet this year. Today’s entry picks up on what I guess is the receiving, and giving, theme today: “An invisible legacy was given to us by people who’ve gone before us. Wealth is more than money. Wealth is found in our families. Part of our legacy is the joy of giving.” I usually know when and where I got something for myself or from someone else, but when I flipped to the cover to give credit to the author, I didn’t recognize his name nor the title and was even more surprised that giving seems to the theme of the whole calendar: GIVING IT ALL AWAY…AND GETTING IT BACK AGAIN. The Way of Living Generously by David Green with Bill High.
JA – “BEWARE OF OVERTHINKING THINGS – obsessing about unimportant matters. When your mind is idle, you tend to go into planning mode: attempting to figure things out and make various decisions before you really need to do so. [Sort of like people do who need help but won’t ask for it and instead work in their own strength and wear themselves out needlessly.] This is an unproductive way of trying to grasp control [like people who can’t control their circumstances themselves but are trying to], and a waste of your precious time…. Relax with Me, putting aside problems so you can be more attentive to Me and receive more of My Love. [Receive. Did everyone who needs to hear that, hear that?] Your soul thirsts for Me, but often you don’t realize what you’re really longing for: awareness of My Presence. [And, perhaps, awareness of the help God tries to offer through other people?] Let Me lead you beside quiet waters and restore your soul [while other people offer to tend to your needs. ‘Let Them’ as Mel Robbins would say].”
Power – Joyce bases today’s devotion on Exodus 20:3 (no other gods before or beside Me) and writes, “The best way to determine if God is first in your life is to slow down and ask yourself some simple questions: What do I think about the most? What do I pray and talk about the most? What do I do with my time? You see, we always make time for what we really want to do – no matter how busy we are. If you want to spend time with God, then you are going to make Him a priority.” And, sometimes when we don’t decide that for ourselves, God sets us into situations where all we have is time for Him, if we will utilize it, which usually leads to us needing to accept help for a season.
Streams – Acts 16:6 – “Paul and his companions… [were] kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.” Cowman takes from Paul, by F. B. Meyer, as she shares, “It is interesting to study the way God extended His guidance to these early messengers of the Cross. It consisted mainly in prohibiting their movement when they attempted to take a course other than the right one.” When our way seems blocked, do we pause to ask God if He’s trying tell us something? She continues sharing from Meyer, “Beloved, whenever you are in doubt as to which way to turn, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, asking Him to shut every door but the right one…. In the meantime, continue along the path you have already been traveling. Persist in your calling until you are clearly told to do something else…. Then after you have prayed the prayer of faith and there are no apparent hindrances, go forward with your confident heart.”
Utmost – Acts 26:18 – “To open their eyes….that they may receive.” Do I need to even go on sharing from the devotion? Certainly this verse is referring to receiving the gift of Christ’s sacrifice, but God does speak to us in many ways about the things He wants us to learn. Among the many thoughts Chambers shares about this, he writes, “When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision.” As I believe I’ve said, recently, God gave us a brain that we are free to use in service to others (and to ourselves), but we must also use that brain to recognize when God wants us to let Him minister to us, sometimes through other people.
Prevail #10 – The title of Larson’s devotion today is, “May God Remind Them, and You” and bases her thoughts on Genesis 41:9 when Pharoah’s chief cup-bearer realized he forgot to speak up about Joseph, “Today I have been reminded of my failure.” May we all be reminded and have the opportunity to rectify our failures. Larson makes me think of how I’ve tried to help myself in many of my endeavors rather than waiting on God to bring help in His time, “You’ve no doubt crossed paths with those who’ve witnessed and confirmed God’s gifts in you…. Yet you’ve heard nothing…. trust God’s perfect time and grace in your life. He is faithful. Though man sometimes forgets, He never will.”
JC – “Every time you affirm your trust in Me, you put a coin into My treasury…. I keep safely in My heart all trust invested in Me, with interest compounded continually…. Then when storms come, your trust balance will be sufficient to see you through.”
