I've heard it, you've seen it, everyone has known about it from somewhere; the cliche that if you're feeling down and out, helping someone will make you feel better. While it is true you'll get a junkie rush from your shot of "I did my good deed", whatever you were feeling prior to that fix doesn't go away.
Your problems won't go away just because you helped someone. In fact, helping others can become an addiction; just like any other distraction you use to escape feeling the emotions of what's really going on. You can help people all day long, but when you're done helping the last person of the day, you're still hurting.
Why is society so afraid of feeling? Who taught us that we must never feel anything bad? Who conditioned us to believe that feeling sad, angry or hurt is a sign of weakness? Who ingrained it into our heads that when bad things happen, we MUST find a way to quickly avoid the feelings that come with it? Why are so many people trying to maintain an image in front of their friends and family, who incidentally are also trying to maintain that same image because EVERYONE hurts at some point!
If your heart is in the wrong place, helping others can become a drug itself; like any other mind altering substance. You can drink, gamble, shop, gossip, watch TV, cook, or exercise all day long, but at the end of that day your problems and your pain are still there. Unless you face them and deal with them, you'll only continue to downward spiral into an abyss of emptiness and even more pain.
Acts 20:35 tells us that it is more blessed to give than to receive; this is in relation to man. In relation to God, it is absolutely better to receive! There is nothing we can give God that He doesn't already have, including our love. Psalm 50:12 tells us that if God were hungry, He wouldn't tell us; everything in the world is His. What He DOES tell us to do is call upon Him in our day of trouble and He will deliver us! We need to consistently TAKE from the Lord, RECEIVE from the ONLY one who can give us everything we need and want, the ONLY one who can BE everything and everyone we need. We need Him to love us, we need Him to help us. If we don't, latching on to anything and everyone we think will make us feel better, will lead us down a path of self-destruction and we won't be any good to ourselves or others!
Do not misunderstand me; I absolutely believe in helping others, it's what the Lord wants us to do. But if you're doing it for the sake of making yourself feel better, your heart is in the wrong place and that should be tended to first.
Do not misunderstand me; I absolutely believe in helping others, it's what the Lord wants us to do. But if you're doing it for the sake of making yourself feel better, your heart is in the wrong place and that should be tended to first.
RESOURCES
Amen!! Lord help us to continually feed on your truth. Our thirsty souls sure do need it. Praise God for saving me and putting within me a well that will never run dry!!!!
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