(John 12:44-46)
(Photo by Ned Horton at the Horton Group)
How many times have you heard these words uttered, “Help me Father God?” Perhaps you have uttered them yourself in a time of darkness or despair when everything seemed hopeless.
Seeking the help of the Father in such situations is normal, for Jesus taught us to pray to the Father and He told us that the Father loves us. However if we are to receive His help we need to understand how to approach Him. We need to gain an insight into the way the Father helps us and how we can come to Him for His help.
Its a bit like at a customer service desk in a shopping centre or airport and even more so in dealing with various government departments. They too have a process that you must understand an follow to get their help. And you can’t be a queue jumper or push in to the front of the line with any of these or with God. You need to follow the rules laid down and understand the process if you want things to proceed smoothly.
So let us take a look at the process in the scriptures today to understand how to get the help of God when we ask, “Help me Father God.”
The Need for Faith
It almost goes without saying that if you are to receive the help of God you must have faith. The scriptures we are looking at today basically say as much.
44 And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.
45 And he who sees me sees him who sent me.
46 I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
Three times in these three verses Jesus uses the word “believes.” Faith is the key to all of the things that come from God. All of His gifts are based upon faith and without faith you cannot receive anything. In Hebrews 11:6 we see this principle underlined.
“And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
He shows that if we are to come to the Father we must believe not just in the Father, but in the Son too. You cannot have one or the other, you need to have faith in both for we come to the Father through the Son. Our faith in the working of the Father who gives us Grace to stand before Him comes through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Without faith we cannot see the kingdom of God and we cannot see either the Son or the Father.
What is God Like?
Now if we are going to call out “Help me Father God” it would be useful to know something about the Father. Jesus Himself said that no one has seen or known the Father except the Son. But He also said that He can reveal the Father to those who come to the Son.
How will He reveal the Father to us? Well He quite plainly answers that question in the scriptures we are looking at today. In verse 45 He says, “And he who sees me sees him who sent me.”
We know the Father not face to face but through our knowledge of the Son. We see the Father not with the eyes of our head but with the eyes of our spirit and our heart.
So what is the Father like? He is like the Son. All of the love, compassion, grace, kindness and love that we see in the example of the Son is a direct reflection of the nature of the Father. Jesus has said that He and the Father are one, not meaning they are the same being, but they are one in spirit, in mind and in heart.
We are taught to follow Jesus, to walk as He walked, to live as He lived, to think as He thinks and to love as He loves. What we are learning how to do is exactly the same as how Jesus relates to the Father. Jesus bears the image of the Father and reflects His glory. And through the power of the Holy Spirit and the working of the New Covenant in our lives we are being transformed into the image of Jesus and therefore the image of God the Father. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18,
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
So if we want to understand what the Father is like, come to the Son. Seek the ways of Jesus who we can see through the eyes of the writers in the New Testament and through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Then we shall know the Father.
Stepping Out of the Darkness
One of the many ways we need the help of God when we cry out “Help me Father God,” is to know and understand our situation. Lack of knowledge often causes fear to arise and we become vulnerable.
But as Jesus said in verse 46, “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
Jesus came to proclaim the light of the knowledge of truth and the knowledge of God. He came as a guiding light to show us the way to salvation. And He came to teach us the ways of His Father who will be our Father when we believe in the Son.
The light of the knowledge of the ways of God open our eyes and take us out of the darkness that exists in this world. The world as we know it is doomed to decay. Death is the norm and it is expected. Evil abounds and the driving forces of this world are greed, selfishness, pride, arrogance and indulging in the primal lusts of the flesh.
The light of the knowledge of God teaches us a better way. Most importantly it gives us the hope of salvation and the pathway to a better life, both here and into eternity.
Men believe they are clever in trying to unravel the secrets of the universe, and they have seen much. But they cannot unravel the secrets of God for they cannot see or measure God. And so they will remain in darkness.
Man sees things in four dimensions: length, width, depth and time. But God exists in the spirit which is not bound by the dimensions a man can see and measure. That is why science will fail to explain God because God can only be met through faith. And it is only faith that can lead a man out of darkness into the light.
Help me Father God is a cry we can all make. And I cry Help me Father God to help others to see the light that shines in the darkness, not for my benefit but for theirs. And I also ask that the Lord keeps me on the path as I walk with Him so that I too can see the light and not stumble in the dark as so many do.
(Photo sourced from stock.xchng taken by Ned Horton at Horton Group)
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Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.
