Look to God for a Needed Boost   

One day I was walking down our church driveway when I noticed a box turtle at the edge of the pavement. Apparently it had crossed the driveway and was trying to climb over the curb to get back into the yard. However, it appeared to be stuck. It was pointed heavenward as it had been attempting to scale that cement protrusion, but wasn’t able to get over the hump. Now it was just sitting there in its upward position against the curb as if it had given up, didn’t know what to do, or simply couldn’t move. Therefore I took a moment to lift it up over what must have seemed to it to have been an insurmountable obstruction and placed it on the other side in the yard where it could continue its journey. It took very little effort on my part, as well as just a moment of my time, but it made a big difference for that turtle.

Sometimes we need a boost as we journey through life with the Lord. In reality, we are always dependent on Him and couldn’t get anywhere without His help. Jesus commented that “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We may need to put forth some effort and take some steps to get there, but without the Lord working in us and watching over us we couldn’t make any progress in our desire to know Him, to live for Him, to serve Him, and to eventually make it to our heavenly home one day.

However, sometimes we get stuck or slowed down by challenges or may just find ourselves weary and tempted to stop struggling to move forward. Like that turtle, we try to climb upward, but sometimes it seems too hard for us. We try to follow God and live according to His will as revealed in the Bible, but our world today puts all kinds of obstacles and temptations in our path that make it so difficult. We want to follow God’s call to be a holy people, but that goal seems so lofty and unreachable for fallible and weak human beings like us. We want to love others as Christ loves us, but certain people get on our nerves and make it so hard to do. We want the Lord to use us to serve Him and impact those around us, but there are so many obstacles to have to climb over in order to get there. We hit a curb and get stuck.

Thankfully, the Lord can give us a boost when we need it. I don’t think that turtle was praying for help, but he was looking upward when I encountered him. And that is what we need to keep doing too. Look to the Lord for the assistance you need. He may provide it directly Himself through His supernatural intervention, through encouragement from His Word, through reviving your soul, or through a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on you. Or He might do it indirectly through sending someone your way to lift you up and give you a helping hand. When you are stuck at a curb, pray and trust the Lord for guidance and help.

We should also be open to opportunities the Lord may give us to be the boost or help someone around us may need. Maybe God wants us to be the one to lift up someone else who is struggling. And strangely enough, I have discovered that as we help others, it tends to give our own lives a boost.

 No hurdle is so big that God can’t lift us over it. Let’s trust Him to give us that extra boost when needed, as well as to enable us to be a help to others.