Psalm 124:8

"Our help is in the Name of the Lord; who made Heaven and Earth."
Psalm 124:8

Who is your help? Who is that you are 'siding' with?

Do you play to the crowd?
Playing to the crowd means that you seek after and find what 'most' people like. It is very easy to do today; in fact it is very hard not to do. Going on the Internet will 'naturally' guide you to the most popular pages/people and you have to try not to get sucked in. Going on the TV makes it impossible NOT to follow the crowd. TV is designed to show you what a select group of people want you to see, and the ONLY thing that guides that group of people is popularity (and arguably, demonic forces...).

The essence of 'the crowd' is what is meant by 1 John 2:14-17. John calls it 'the world'; the system that is simply pervasive in the social atmosphere around us. Left to ourselves, that means left in the world or the crowd without divine input, we cannot but follow after the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Playing to the crowd will help you go softly through life to its terrible, and irreversible, end. There you will find no help towards godliness (except in so far as in God's amazing grace He will leave markers of His own trail that you may find).

The Lord helps us avoid this trap through the numerous warnings in Scripture to flee from such temptations (Matthew 7:12-14; 2 Timothy 2:22-23; among many others). If we would flee through the narrow gate then we must look for ways amongst the crowd to be different. These ways are always (and only) found in His Word and among His People. It is a careful business to be in the world and not of the world. It is found by trusting the promises of God; when you actually live like what God says is true, then you will live here, among the people around you, yet you will be trusting in the best help: the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth.

Do you play to specific favorites?
People are important to us; that is as it should be. But we can make idols of our relationships. This can be true of a parent to a child, of a child to a parent or of any random person to another. It is too easy to say that we can love someone too much: when speaking of biblical love, that statement could never be true.

The Bible calls 'playing to specific favorites' 'the fear of man':
"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." Proverbs 29:25

To put it in plain language, the fear of man is "an inordinate desire for human approval or an intense fear of being rejected." (CJ Mahaney, Fear of Man found on Monergism.com) Obviously, this desire or fear can be placed on any number of people. But when put in this fashion, it becomes painfully obvious that these are exactly the 'fears' we must give to God: we must have as great a desire for God's approval as is possible (there's no such thing as 'inordinate' in God's case), we must have as intense a fear as possible of being rejected by God.

If there were a cobra in your room you would do everything you could to maintain a right 'relationship' to that cobra (i.e. as far away from its fangs as possible). The same 'fear' ought to be in our hearts with regards to God (i.e. as far away from breaking His laws as possible--the sting of sin is death').

God is our help because (among a great many other things) He rescues us from these fears that would destroy our souls.

Great Father, praise You that You are the 'Fear of Isaac'.
Great Son, praise You that You are the One who calms our fears.
Great Spirit, praise You that You are the Comforter of our souls.

Who or what are you fearing today instead of God?

Fearing God together with you,
Pastor Greg