Assistance Needed

You may have seen or heard the recent news story about a smart robot that recently performed the first laparoscopic surgery without human help. In the study, published Jan. 26 in Science Robotics, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) performed four soft tissue surgeries on pigs to reconnect two ends of an intestine. Such procedures require a great deal of repetitive movement and precision. One misplaced stitch can result in an intestinal leak that could prove disastrous for a patient. The results showed that the robot performed the procedures with significantly better results than human surgeons achieve.

What caught my eye in this story was the phrase “without human help.” It sounds a bit scary until you stop and think that “human help” designed and built the STAR to do what it does. There are obviously many implications to consider with this kind of advancement (good and bad), but what about this reality of “without human help”?

Think about it: Our faith teaches us that God is a “without human help” God as well as a “with human help” God.

God never needed our help to create everything, formulate truth, make and keep supernatural promises, grant spiritual gifts, gift us with the indwelling Presence and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, send His One and only Son to forgive all our sins and count us justified. He didn’t need our help to place us in His church or cause all things to work together for our good and His glory. The list is long regarding all the “spiritual blessings in the heavenlies” which God had no assistance (nor needed any) in giving us what we needed in order to live a totally sufficient, fully fulfilled and productive life that honors Him.

But God has also chosen to use our help which He ironically enabled us to do. We take His amazing gifts of grace and let them do their perfecting work. God desires us to take all His enabling gifts like “faith, hope, and love” and use them every day with people He places in our path along with all the circumstances He providentially brings our way.

Without His assistance, we don’t exist and this note is meaningless, yet His divine plan works in and through people like you and me to magnify His greatness, enjoy His perfect blessings, and benefit others in our lives.

This good word maybe sums it up for me: “work out your salvation with fear and trembling (OUR part), for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (HIS part). Philippians 2:12b–13

Thank the Lord for His eternal assistance.

Pastor Jeff