Too Helpful?
Is it possible to be too helpful? Can our helpfulness actually make life more difficult for others? Yes, if we are being bothersome, intrusive, smothering, manipulative, or controlling. If the help we are giving is driven only by our own anxiety, we may be just trying to help ourselves.
How then can we know if our heart and acts of service are really symbolic of God's unconditional love? How can we love from pure motives? (Proverbs 16:2).
In prayer we can ask God to show us any way we are hurting or hindering others (Psalms 139:23-24). We can ask God to help us show love that "suffers long and is kind, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil."
Our efforts to help others, especially those we love the most, will never be completely free from anxiety. But we can, by God's grace, begin to love freely with no strings attached, as God Himself loves. The test, or course, and the measure of our progress, is the way we react when our "helpfulness" is unrecognized or goes unrewarded.
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