Faith

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Friday, February 4, 2022Faith

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Asking for help is the most basic prayer because it is the prayer from which all other prayer flows. It's where we must learn to begin if we are to pray at all.

Jaymie Stuart
Wolfe

''God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me": the words flow easily and without a second thought. Acknowledging that I am unable to do much of anything good on my own, that my own talents and efforts will always fall short; however, isn't usually what pops into mind when I'm planning my day. But it should be.

Instead of contemplating the endless and overwhelming to-do list and marshaling all my resources for another day of battle, I could (theoretically) bring my insufficient self to God and surrender it and everything I'm up against to him. I could stop trying to live on my own power and finally learn to rely on him for more than just a moment. I could start asking God for help when I need it, recognizing that there isn't a day (or hour, or minute) when I don't. And then, I could wait for and accept the help he gives (again, theoretically). That's how a personal relationship with God is supposed to work. But when the delusion of self-sufficiency kicks in, when I default to believing that I am enough or should be -- that's where my trouble begins.

And I'm not alone. Most of us are still stumbling through faith the way Israel stumbled through the desert. We have left the taskmasters of Egypt behind and are on our way to all that God has promised us, but we have yet to experience true freedom. We have a merciful God who has chosen to go with us -- a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night -- but it's not enough for us to just follow him, so we end up wandering in circles. We have witnessed God's almighty power time and time again. Still, we try to do everything on our own -- until we can't.

Asking for help is the most basic prayer because it is the prayer from which all other prayer flows. It's where we must learn to begin if we are to pray at all. Of course, weakness and helplessness aren't things we like to recognize in ourselves. We're taught to pretend our deficiencies and limitations don't exist; some of us are experts at finding a way to hide them when we've discovered that they do. We call it "putting our best foot forward."

The problem is that we do the same thing with God. And when we share a version of ourselves with him that looks better than we are, we cannot experience the depth of his love for us as we truly are. We must resist the inner Komodo dragon -- the one who tells us to make ourselves look bigger and stronger when we feel small -- and learn to call out to God instead. It's less about learning to ask for help when we need it and more about realizing that we need God's help all the time.

The delusion so many of us choose damages us. And only the truth can set us free. We must learn to see ourselves the way God sees us: so very small, so powerless and weak, so sinful and selfish, and not just occasionally, but on a daily basis. But we must also learn to see all those limitations and insufficiencies the way God sees them: as more reason, not less, for him to love and cherish us.

I know that I am not up to what God has asked of me or even all that he has given me. I'm still figuring out how to continually recognize and respond to that truth. But I'm pretty sure it begins with asking God for help, not just when it comes to the big things, but for everything.

- Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a Catholic convert, wife, and mother of eight. Inspired by the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, she is an author, speaker, and musician, and provides freelance editorial services to numerous publishers and authors as the principal of One More Basket. Find Jaymie on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @YouFeedThem.