One Word Prayers - Week 3: Help | Psalm 107

Thanks for downloading the Fredo from a podcast.

Too often our prayer life is built words.

Words that actually prevent us from connecting and growing closer to God.

In this series, we're focusing on four simple one-word prayers that will help anyone grow in a relationship with Jesus.

I hope today's message is encouragement.

Like many new parents, Priscilla Dunstan found herself at her wit's end.

She had tried everything in her bag of tricks to soothe the incessant crying of her colicky newborn son.

But all he did was cry and cry and cry the more.

All she wanted in her life was just a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Is that too much to ask?

But nothing she did seemed to work.

Priscilla grew more and more exhausted and more and more frustrated by the day.

Until one day she made a startling discovery.

Priscilla began to notice a pattern when her son cried.

Before he ever uttered that first tear, before that first cry came out of his mouth, her son always made a sound.

And she listened closer and closer, and she noticed that before the tears started streaming down her son's face, that the sounds he made, they changed depending on the time of the day and what was going on in their home.

Yeah, there were five unique sounds that she picked up on that she heard throughout the course of a day.

This mom was kind of like Sherlock Holmes investigating the scene of the crime.

So she gathered together all of these clues, all these observations, and she began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

And this is what Priscilla Dunstan noticed.

She noticed that her son again made five sounds, and each of them had a specific message.

It expressed, she thought, a specific need.

The sound eh feed me.

That's a good one.

The sound eh burp me.

The sound err change me.

The sound eh hold me.

The sound oh rock me.

She was curious if other children made those same five sounds.

She shared her findings with her father.

He just so happened to be a research professor at the local university.

He said that he would help his daughter test her hypothesis.

Together they studied 400 infants, and their findings actually do suggest that Priscilla was onto something.

Yeah, it's quite possible that those five distinct sounds did comprise, they thought, something of a universal baby language.

And now millions of parents around the world actually have benefited from the findings of Priscilla Dunstan.

It's called the Dunstan Baby Language.

Maybe you saw her when she appeared on Oprah about 10 years ago.

And if you are a parent of an infant and you desperately want more sleep, there's good news.

You can take an online course in the Dunstan baby language.

And you can learn over the course of just a few hours what your baby is trying to say to you.

Parents around the world, they sign up to take these courses, not only to make life a little bit more bearable so that they can get those few hours of uninterrupted sleep, but more importantly, they want to grow closer and more connected to their child.

Yeah, that connection is only possible if a parent learns to listen to and respond to the needs of their baby.

That need feed me, that need burt me, that need change me, that need hold me, that need rock me.

Yet as I reflect on those five specific needs, those five specific messages, I really realize that each one is just a variation of a more basic and a more fundamental message.

The message, help me.

An infant cannot feed himself or change himself.

He needs help.

An infant cannot move himself when he wants a change of scenery.

He needs help.

And an infant, he cannot soothe himself often to fall asleep.

He needs help.

In fact, at every stage of life, a child needs a parent's help.

An elementary age child needs the help of a parent when it comes to tying their shoes and completing their homework.

A middle school age child needs the help of their parent when it comes to navigating friendships.

A child in high school, they need the help of a parent when it comes to choosing classes or choosing a college or choosing a career path.

And even as adults, we look to our parents for help.

Often the help they offer when we're adults is the help of a life of learned and lived experience.

The help they offer is wisdom that's accumulated over the years.

From the moment a child enters this world, from the moment of their birth, and at every stage of life, a child says, Help me.

Because it's part of God's divine will, God's plan on this earth that a child would look to, depend upon, and need their parents.

And what's true of human development is also true of spiritual development.

From the moment a person is born again, from the moment they put their faith in Jesus Christ for the first time and cry out, help me, God, I am dying in my sin.

Help me, God, I cannot get out of this sin on my own.

From that moment forward, through every stage of spiritual growth, every step of the journey of faith, we cry out, help me.

We never grow beyond that admission.

Because as children of God, as those who are born again through the power of Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit, we say, help me, because we are people who look to and depend upon and always will need our Heavenly Father.

So here's the question: When is the last time you cried out to God and asked for help?

A couple weeks back, as a companion to our season of 21 Days of Prayer, we began this four-week series that we're calling one-word prayers.

And it's my belief that these simple one-word prayers allow us to draw closer to God and become more connected to Him.

Because these simple one-word prayers, they strip away often those meaningless words that we fill our prayers with.

And it points us to these most basic and fundamental aspects of our relationship with God.

So in week one, we focused on that one-word prayer, Father.

In week two, our one word was thanks.

And today's one word is help.

Did you know that from the human perspective?

The story of God's children, the nation of Israel, from their perspective, their grand adventure with God begins with the word help.

The book of Exodus tells us that while the descendants of Jacob are living in slavery in Egypt, the Israelites cried out for help.

And their cry rose up to God.

God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

Pay attention to that.

That's our one-word prayer in this moment.

Help.

And God doesn't say you can work it out on your own.

He doesn't say you should organize and get a plan.

He doesn't say you should try to help yourself.

Instead, the moment God hears their cry for help, God says, What?

It's time to act.

I'm gonna offer them the help that they need.

You see, that's the word help is where really all of our relationships with God begin because that word help is this confession and admission that we are putting our faith in one who is greater than us.

That the problems we face in this world, and our greatest problem, sin, is not something we can help ourselves out of.

Yet some of us, if not many of us, don't like to pray, help.

Because when it comes to our relationship with God, we're sort of like a teenager.

Yeah, you know that teenager, the one who lives in your house right now, and every single day all you can think about is pulling out every hair on your head because they just drive you so crazy.

That teenager who has all the answers, and if they don't have the answer, they're gonna find the answer on their own.

You know that teenager who doesn't ever want to ask for help because they can't imagine giving up just even a sliver of control in their life.

That's many of us when it comes to our relationship with God.

We think we've got all the answers.

We don't want to give up any control.

But there's a great danger that presents itself if we resist praying this one-word prayer, help.

What started out as a minor problem can often escalate into a crisis.

What started out as going over budget on a single purchase becomes drowning in debt.

What started out as a pattern of unresolved conflict leads to divorce.

What started out as a bad habit becomes an addiction.

What started out as sarcasm uh ends up in driving away all of your friends and family.

No one wants to spend time with you.

Here's the truth about me and the truth about you.

I need help and you need help.

Life is more demanding and difficult than we can navigate on our own.

Life is more complex and confusing than you can sort through on your own.

And God stands ready to help if you only ask.

And here's what I promise happens in our life.

If we learn to repeatedly pray that one word help, to pray that one word help over the decisions we make with regard to every temptation we face, that word help when a tragedy comes out of nowhere, or just every morning as we roll out of bed, we will grow closer and more connected to God.

Because every time we pray help, it's an opportunity for God to act in our life.

For God, our Heavenly Father, to be that attentive parent.

For God to listen to our cry and respond accordingly.

Every day when we pray help, it's an opportunity for our faith in God to grow, for our trust in God to become greater, for our confidence in God to be true and real.

So today let's learn to pray together this one word, prayer.

The prayer help.

Specifically, I want us to think through and learn how to pray help on two types of days.

Let's learn to pray the word help first on a normal day, and then secondly, on a dark day.

Let's learn how to pray on a normal day and a dark day.

Psalm 107 is gonna be our guide this morning.

And I'll begin by just reading verses four through nine.

Verse four.

Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless, hungry and thirsty.

They nearly died.

Lord help! They cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress.

He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.

Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done, for he satisfies the thirsty, and he fills the hungry with good things.

Psalm 107, verses 4 through 9 transport us to the time in the life of Israel known as the wilderness period.

Psalms 107:4–9

Those 40 years, right, between uh departing Egypt and arriving in the promised land of Cana.

For future generations, those 40 years in the wilderness became symbolic.

They described kind of the in-between time of life.

The wilderness time was the space, the gap between leaving point A and arriving at point B.

The wilderness time was the period in our life between when God, listen, when God first spoke a promise to us and the fulfillment of that promise in the future.

We then live, if that's what the wilderness time is, the space between a promise spoken and a promise fulfilled, we live in our own wilderness moment right now.

We live in the space between God's promise first spoken at the birth of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of that promise when Jesus comes again.

So just consider the implications.

This means that the wilderness doesn't name an extraordinary day, but an ordinary day.

The wilderness is a normal day in the life of you and me.

And it's a day when you and I must learn to pray.

Help.

I like this prayer.

I came across it a couple of years ago.

We'll put it on the screen.

This is a prayer for help on a normal day.

Dear God, so far today I've done all right.

I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.

I'm very thankful for that.

But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help.

Sometimes the help I need on a normal day is due to bringing trouble and distress upon myself.

I need help when I get out of bed, when I get going, and when I get around people.

Because often, let's be honest, people bring out the worst in us, right?

If it's just me, I'm okay.

But it's when I get out and about that my soul is revealed.

That the true me comes out, and I cry, help.

Or Psalm 107 names a few specific ways that you and I need to pray for help on a normal day.

Psalm 107 says, Some pray for help because they are lost.

The lost.

Those are people who lack direction in life.

They don't know where they are going.

They don't know what decision they are supposed to make.

Here's the question then.

Do you ask for God's help when you're making a decision involving your career?

When you're taking a business risk?

Do you ask for God's help if you're making the decision to get married?

Do you ask for God's help if you're trying to decide if it's time to go back to school or continue in school?

Do you ask for God's help if you're trying to discern whether or not to move to another city?

And in those moments, when we cry out for help, you know, I think often we want God, if we ask for help in those moments, here's what we want.

We want God to hire one of those uh airplanes that carries the banner through the sky.

You've seen those before, right?

Often when a guy says, Will you marry me?

Very cliche.

Don't do that to the young men in the audience.

Don't do that if you ever fall in love one day.

Don't do that.

Be more creative.

But that's how we really want God to answer our prayers, isn't it?

Like God, write a message in the sky for me for everyone to read.

But when we pray help over decisions and directions in life, that's not what God does.

That's not what he does.

Instead, when we pray help over those decisions and directions, often what God does is he um reminds us of a truth, of a story found in his word.

He brings to mind a conversation with a godly friend.

And the Holy Spirit does something that only the Holy Spirit can do.

The Holy Spirit connects the dot between the Bible verse that you weren't sure why you read it when you did, or the conversation, I'm not sure where this conversation was going or why I had it.

In that moment, as you pray over that decision or the direction you're going, and the Holy Spirit makes that connection, and it's as if God is speaking to you so clearly and loudly in that moment, and you know it's God, because in that moment, when you pray over that decision and that direction, this peace fills your life.

And it's something you cannot explain.

But someone who's done that same process of praying over decision and direction, if you tell them about it, they'll say, Oh, I get that.

That was you calling out for help.

And God, what did he do?

He came down and he acted.

He helped you in the exact way that you needed.

Or on a normal day, Psalm 107 says God's people says that God He helps the homeless and the hungry, those are people who lack security in life.

And this one is free of charge, kind of a sidebar on this point of how God helps.

If the security that comes with having food in your pantry and a place to lay your head every night and central heat and air isn't a security question that you face, then you get to pray last week's prayer, the prayer of thanks.

Amen.

Because those good gifts are the result of God being good to you.

Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Heavenly Lights who is above us and pours these things down on his children.

But for those in this room who don't feel security, you can pray help.

If you recently lost your job, you can pray help.

If you think you're going to have to file for bankruptcy, you can pray help.

If you can't pay your bills and you're on a fixed income, you can pray help.

It matters like these when it comes to security.

Sometimes we're slow to pray help because we're under the impression that the Bible says God helps those who help themselves.

As a matter of fact, the Bible doesn't say that.

Aesop in his fables, he said that.

The Greek writer Aesop said God helps those who help themselves.

Actually, he said the gods help those who help themselves.

God actually just helps people who ask.

He helps those who are weak.

He helps those who are scared.

He helps people who are in way over their heads.

God helps people in the course of a normal day that cannot help themselves.

All they need to do is ask.

But this is not just a prayer for a normal day.

It's also a prayer for dark days.

Beginning in verse 10, picking up in Psalm 107, it says, Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom, imprisoned in iron chains of misery.

They rebelled against the words of God, scorning the counsel of the Most High.

That is why he broke them with hard labor.

They fell and no one was there to help them.

Lord help.

They cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.

He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom.

He snapped their chains.

Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.

For he broke down their prison gates of bronze, he cut apart their bars of iron.

The dark day in Psalm 107 is the day when a series of choices comes to a culmination, comes to a head.

Specifically, when a series of sinful decisions hardens us to the presence and to the love of God in our life.

A life that would rather not ask for help nor consult God on any decision.

And when that happens, time and time again, day by day, year by year, decade by decade, that life, Psalm 107 tells us, is filled with trouble.

It's not good.

It's dark.

It's difficult.

The New Testament tells us about a guy who experienced this sort of dark day.

Jesus tells his story in Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Jesus calls him the younger son.

Sometimes we call him the lost son or the prodigal son.

Maybe you're familiar with that story.

So one day this younger son goes to his father and he requests that his dad give him all of his inheritance.

This younger son, I can imagine, he's got life figured out.

He doesn't need anybody's help.

He's going to move to the big city, he's going to start a career.

I'm not going to take advice from anyone.

I'm not going to listen to anyone.

I'm going to do my own thing.

His father gives him his inheritance, and the younger son, he moves.

And during the day, he works hard, but at night and on the weekends, he works even harder.

He has a really, really good time.

Eventually, he burns through all of his inheritance.

And then a recession hits.

A famine sweeps the land.

Everybody loses their job.

And the only job that he can find is working for a farmer feeding the pigs.

But that farmer doesn't pay him enough to eat.

One day the younger son hits rock bottom.

The day is as dark as he has ever experienced.

He's so hungry that on that day he stares at the slop that he is feeding those pigs and he thinks, I guess I could eat that.

But then on that dark day, as he looks at the slop of the pigs and the feet of the pigs, he prays a one-word prayer.

He prays the prayer, help.

Luke tells us that this younger son, he comes to his senses.

In that moment, he realizes, I don't have life figured out.

I don't have all the answers.

I've got more questions than I do have answers.

I need someone to help me.

So he goes home.

And he goes to find his father.

He falls at the feet of his father, and he says, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you.

And he says, I know it's time to act.

First John chapter one, verse nine says this.

And to cleanse us from all wickedness.

That promise from 1 John chapter 1, verse 9 is as true today as the day it was written.

1 John 1:9

That when we cry out to God help, he stands ready to help us.

And for a child of God, we will never outgrow praying this one word prayer.

For our entire life on this earth, God has created us to look to him, to need him and to depend on him, to need his help on a normal day and on a dark day.

So how do you need God's help today?

Let's pray together.

The direction you need to take in life.

Would you pray for his help right now?

Does your life lack security?

Are you looking for a job?

Are you worried about paying your bills?

Pray help.

Fall at the feet of the Father and cry help.

Cry help.

Jesus wants you to put your faith in him today.

To believe that he is the Savior and Lord over all creation.

That God saw the condition of the world and he knew he had to act, he had to help, he had to send his only son.

So that all who put their faith in him might receive the gift of eternal life.

Loving Father, we cry out, help this morning.

We cry out help because we recognize our limitations.

We don't have all the answers.

We cry out, help.

And we're willing to give up control and we're willing to surrender to you today because we know that you have a perfect plan.

That you are good.

You are all knowing.

Help us, God, to overcome temptation.

Help us, God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, to live as children who have been freed by the power of Jesus Christ from the shame and the weight of sin.

We will not serve sin but serve you.

We need your help to do that.

Oh Lord, help us.

We are our own worst enemies.

Let your mercy and grace fall on this place today, King Jesus.

In your name we pray.

Amen.