AN EVER PRESENT HELP
BREAD
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Psalm 46:1-11 (NIV)
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:9-10 (NIV)
23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26 (NIV)
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2 (NIV)
14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 (NIV)
14 “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14 (NIV)
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV)
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD watches over you– the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm– he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121:1-8 (NIV)
BUTTER
“‘On whom dost thou trust?’ We can answer boldly, ‘We trust in him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never cease, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never be sullied, whose wisdom will never be nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness never can know a diminution.’” Charles H. Spurgeon
“The work of a true convert is not done. He (and she) finds a great work to do and great wants to be supplied. He (and she) still sees himself/herself to be a poor, empty, helpless creature who still stands in great and continual need of God’s help. He/she well knows that without God he/she can do nothing. After a true conversion, the soul is increasingly aware of its own impotence and emptiness. It is still aware of its universal dependence on God for everything. A true convert is aware that his grace is very imperfect and that he/she is very far from having all that he/she desires. Through conversion, new desires are produced in him/her that he/she never had before…So he/she still has plenty of business at the throne of grace: if fact, his/her business there increases rather than diminishes.” Jonathan Edwards
“We need to keep reminding ourselves that without the Lord we can do nothing. It needs to become a habit of mind with each of us to tell the Lord as we tackle each task, ‘I can’t do this without your help, please help me’, and then to expect to be helped because we have admitted our helplessness, given up self-reliance and are now looking to Him.” J. I. Packer
“This morning let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help thee’. ‘It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! Not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! Not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for thee; I gave My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. “Help thee?” Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all sufficiency. “I will help thee”.’ O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them there – thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper!” C. H. Spurgeon
“The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Helper, the Guide, the very presence of God living in you. The great promise of God in prayer is this: We ask God for the gift- He gives us the Giver. We ask God for the supply and He gives us the Source. We ask God for the money and He doesn’t give us cash; instead, so to speak, He gives us the bank…He delights in giving us Himself….The resources of heaven are ready and waiting for the people of God who desire to make much of him in this world.” David Platt
“A special faith in our Lord Jesus Christ’s person, work and office is the life, heart and mainspring of the Christian character. He sees by faith and unseen Saviour, who loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bore his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in heaven for him as his Advocate at the right hand of God. He sees Jesus and clings to Him…..He sees his own many sins, his weak heart, a tempting world, a busy devil; and if he looked only at them, he might well despair. But he sees also a mighty Saviour, an interceding Saviour, a sympathizing Saviour—His blood…..His righteousness, His everlasting priesthood—and he believes that all this is his own. He sees Jesus and casts his whole weight on Him. Seeing Him, he cheerfully fights on, with a full confidence that he will prove more than conqueror through Him that loved him…Habitual lively faith in Christ’s presence and readiness to help is the secret of the Christian fighting successfully.” J C Ryle, Holiness
“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend: and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His Name.” George Mueller
“Jesus! What a friend for sinners! Jesus lover of my soul! Friends may fail me, foes assail me; He, my Savior, makes me whole. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus! What a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him; Tempted tried and sometimes failing, He, my strength my victory wins. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus! What a help in sorrow! While the billows o’er me roll, Even when my heart is breaking, He, my Comfort helps my soul. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.” J. Wilbur Chapman
“It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.” Jeremy Taylor
“What we feed our minds and hearts on will determine whether we live a life of faith or a life of fear. …The more time we spend with God and His Word, the more our faith develops and our fear diminishes….Faith in God conquers fear every time. The God who has redeemed us and cares for us is trustworthy. Our Creator God will never abandon us, and He has our best interests at heart. ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging’(Psalm 46:1-3).” Michael Youssef
“Christ sometimes delays His help that He may try our faith and quicken our prayers. The boat may be covered with the waves, and He sleeps on; but He will wake up before it sinks. He sleeps, but He never oversleeps; and there are no ‘too lates’ with Him.” Alexander Maclaren
“Assurance grows by repeated conflict…When we have been brought very low and helped, sorely wounded and healed, cast down and raised again…and when these things have been repeated to us and in us a thousand times over, we begin to learn to trust simply to the word and power of God.” John Newton
“Nowhere does the Bible teach that Christians are exempt from tribulation and natural disaster…But the Bible does teach that we can face trials with a power others do not have – the power of God. As we trust Him, God helps us endure, and even discern His purposes in the midst of suffering…The eagle has the unique ability to lock its joints and soar effortlessly on an updraft, instead of flapping its wings. As we wait on God, He helps us use the winds of adversity to soar above our problems. As the Bible says, ‘Those who wait on the Lord…shall mount up with wings like eagles’ (Isaiah 40:31).” Billy Graham
“He is near to the broken, He is close to the weary of heart. In His Name is a refuge, Safety for the weak and discarded. There is help for the hopeless, For the wounded in need. In the presence of Jesus, There is power unleashed. Call upon the Name of the Lord, He’s our Defender, our Deliverer. A Shelter in the midst of the storm, Jesus, our Savior, He is King over all the earth. I will sing of my Redeemer, Testify to the touch of His hand, Lifted me from disaster, Set my feet on a solid rock to stand. God is our Refuge, our Strength and Salvation, A Mighty Fortress is the Lord Almighty. There is no equal, no power beside Him. Forever our Champion is the Lord our God. Our Savior, He is King over all the earth.” Lyrics to Defender (Call Upon The Name Of The Lord)
“Courage for the Christian is simply doing the next right thing through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results in God’s loving hands. He is always faithful to give the grace sufficient to meet each need as we need it. Courage is faith in action – not faith in ourselves but faith in Him.” BHY
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” Hudson Taylor
HEART SAVOR
• God is our refuge and strength – a solid Rock on which to stand.
• He is ever close to the weary of heart.
• Our Lord will never leave us nor forsake us.
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 