How I Learned Our Amazing God Does Not Need Our Help

How I learned God does not need our help.

I worked as an ICU nurse for five years and cared for critically ill patients with all kinds of sicknesses, helping pull many back from the brink of death.

But it wasn’t until I became a family caregiver that I realized God didn’t need me to help him heal people.

God does not need our help…He can heal just fine on his own, thank you very much.

Seeking Help

When my mother began developing memory problems, I took her to a gerontologist, who diagnosed mild cognitive disorder.

He said it might progress or it might not.

One summer a couple of years later, she began deteriorating rapidly. Her memory spiraled downhill, but she also displayed odd motor symptoms.

We went from doctor to doctor, trying to find answers. One neurologist decided she had dementia and brushed us off, but I knew something more was wrong.

Meanwhile, Mom continued to worsen to the point she could no longer walk, could barely speak more than one or two words in answer to a question, and had no short-term memory.

All the time we were seeking help from the medical community, I couldn’t sleep. I prayed and begged God for wisdom, asking him to help me find answers.

Yet I also trusted in my medical knowledge and experience. I’m a nurse, after all. I should be able to figure this out.

The same scenario went on for weeks, and I was becoming exhausted.

God Does Not Need Our Help

Finally, one night, I told God I was done and asked his forgiveness for playing God.

“I don’t know where else to go or what else to do. Only you have the answers. Please help us.”

As I was falling asleep that night, God brought back the memory of a friend whose father had similar symptoms.

Three words came to mind—normal pressure hydrocephalus.

A neurosurgeon tested Mom for the condition and inserted a shunt to drain the excess fluid causing her symptoms. She made an amazing turnaround.

God knew all along what was wrong. But I was so busy trying to help God help my mom, I wasn’t allowing him to take over and control her outcome.

Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses”, and that’s what I was doing rather than remembering who created those “chariots and horses” in the first place.

While we had a fantastic medical team, I needed to trust in the one who created my mom and could heal her.

Wasting Time

A few years later, an agent suggested I write a devotional book.

When considering a theme for the devotions, it seemed only natural to write about my nursing and caregiving experiences, including my mom’s story.

In Health, Healing, and Wholeness: Devotions of Hope in the Midst of Illness, I felt as though I had come full circle.

Now to get the book into the hands of people who needed it.

Long before the book was released, I appeared on podcasts, wrote guest pieces for blogs and newsletters, and posted about the book and its topic on social media.

I assembled a launch team and kept them in the loop about the progress of the book, all leading up to the big, all-important launch day.

An author’s participation in his or her book release is critical in moving a book up the ranks so readers can find it. I was doing everything possible to make it a success because, without readers, a book is just ink and paper sitting on a shelf.

Near the time of the launch, my mother-in-law had been living with us for almost four years. Twelve days after her one-hundredth birthday, she had a massive heart attack.

Growing weaker and weaker, she soon went on hospice.

My husband and I cared for her 24/7, even getting up multiple times a night. We were so tired we could hardly see straight.

I certainly couldn’t sit in front of a computer for hours posting about a book.

I had wasted my time preparing for the release.

Letting Go and Trusting God to Help

When the book launched, I could do nothing. Yet the book was awarded the #1 New Release banner and sold out the first day.

That’s what God does when we can’t.

Yes, I had a fantastic launch director who told me to “stand down—we’ve got this.”

Yes, I had a team of dedicated writers and readers who promoted the book.

But plenty of other books with the same kind of help have flopped.

What was the difference with this one? God.

God took over and ran the launch. He had a plan for this book and didn’t need me to make it work.

Proving God does not need our help!

God Does Not Need Our Help But Wants Us to Participate

God does not need our help to complete his plan . . . but he still wants us to be active participants.

I too often take that to mean I have to do everything. The trouble is that “doing everything” doesn’t mean I rely upon myself.

My job is to take one step at a time, following God and trusting that he knows the next move to make better than I do—even if it means doing nothing.

More recently, he has opened doors I thought were closed, bringing businesses and individuals to purchase and donate cases of my book.

They are placed in cancer treatment centers, chemo support ministries, hospital bookstores, and low-income health clinics where they reach readers who need this message the most. Wow!

Whether we seek medical aid, help with finances, or wisdom to counsel a backslidden child, God has the answers.

He also has a plan for each of our lives, and his plan is always better than ours—even when we can’t see that.

He just wants us to trust him as he puts his goals for us into action.

Though not always an easy thing to do, I can testify from experience that leaving our dreams to God reaps rewards far beyond our imagination.

So the next time you feel the urge to help God out, remember God does not need our help.

The creator of the universe can handle things just fine on his own, thank you very much.

Author

Tracy Crump

Tracy Crump dispenses hope in her award-winning book, Health, Healing, and Wholeness: Devotions of Hope in the Midst of Illness, based on her experiences as an ICU nurse and family
caregiver. In 2022, she started a blog for caregivers, our unsung heroes.