Another's Arm

      Proximal forearm hooked in axillary cavity, hand clasping the hypothenar eminence. All set. “One...Two...Three…” I lift. She’s up. Done in a matter of seconds… but the confidence in her eyes…  It would pay for a much harder work.

... 

      “How am I going to get up? My legs just don’t obey me.” The face clearly expresses the concern in her voice. 
      “I will help you, don’t worry.”  

      Her helplessness is impressed upon me all the more. Without strength from an outside source, she cannot arise. Even though it is a delight to help, some disdain the gesture. Some prefer to stay where they are than rely upon another’s arm. But if they ask, I get excited. I know they want help. It’s not my choice, it’s theirs.

... 

      “Will you help me up? You know how to do it.” Arm in arm, hand in hand, I lift, she asks… and wills… hmmm. Interesting, eh? The patient didn’t need to persuade me. But her confidence nails it shut. How can I deny it? When I can help, and want to help, and she asks… it’s a done deal.

      As I muse upon the matter, the picture of a Savior is impressed upon my consciousness. He lifts. He encourages. He strengthens with His own strength. Apart from His aid I would not arise. 

      “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” Psalm 44:3. Of Israel the prophet Isaiah writes, “For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.” Isaiah 27:5. When we have hold upon the arm of the Lord, we can have confidence in God. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. 

     “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 1 John 5:14-15. 

      Someone is waiting for us to desire His help. Will we take hold of His arm? “He does not always bring us into pleasant places. If He did, in our self-sufficiency we should forget that He is our helper. He longs to manifest Himself to us, and to reveal the abundant supplies at our disposal, and He permits trial and disappointment to come to us that we may realize our helplessness, and learn to call upon Him for aid. We shall never know until we are face to face with God, when we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known, how many burdens He has borne for us, and how many burdens He would have been glad to bear, if with childlike faith we had brought them to Him…” {ML 12}.

      George Duffield’s weighty words come to mind ...The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own… Friends, let us have confidence in Another’s arm!