To Help or Not to Help - Martin Wiles

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! Hebrews 13:2 NLT

He stood on a busy intersection, holding a sign we couldn’t read. To help or not to help, that was the question. Although the town where we lived wasn’t large, we had begun to see more homeless and indigent people standing on corners near our local restaurants and retailers.

As we pulled out of one parking lot after our meal, my wife and I strained our necks but couldn’t read his sign. After visiting the pharmacy to pick up medicine, we passed the man again on our way home.

“I’m going to circle around to see what the sign says,” my wife remarked.

I was glad. Lately, we had been paying it forward. Perhaps this was another opportunity. As we neared the gentleman, we noticed he didn’t look like the others we’d seen requesting help.

The man’s sign read, “Trying desperately to help my family. Waiting on my disability check.” He didn’t appear disabled, but then again, many who are don’t. We pulled to the stop sign next to him. My wife said nothing.

“What do you think?” I finally asked.

“I don’t feel the tug,” she said. And we drove on.

God regularly places opportunities in our path. More if we ask Him too. But I can’t take advantage of every good opportunity, nor does God expect me to. I’m not a wealthy man. Even Jesus, with all of heaven’s riches at his disposal, didn’t heal every sickness or meet the needs of every person who wanted his help. There were times when he left the crowds to pray to his heavenly Father or to move to another region.

Knowing which helping opportunity God wants us to seize takes much prayer. This helps us look and listen with spiritual eyes and ears. We must ask God to send the opportunities, but we must also ask him to let us see them. Busyness and selfishness will often cause us to miss out.

The tug my wife mentioned is what we call God’s Spirit. We both feel it when it’s an opportunity God wants us to take. It’s an overwhelming pressure to intervene—a feeling of guilt when we let the opportunity slip by.

Ask God to show you the situations where he wants you to intervene. You can’t do it all, but you can do something.

Father, guide me to those people and situations where you want me to intervene. 

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