March 3

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. — 2 Thess 3:5 BSB

We need Christ’s patience to help us avoid over-helping others. One of the greatest dangers is the eagerness to do too much when we see someone in need. We might try to help too much, or too soon, lifting burdens that God intends for them to carry a bit longer for their own growth. We might want to make things easier for them when it’s actually better for the path to remain difficult. We may rush the process of learning a lesson that would be better learned slowly, or we might try to force something to happen before God’s timing, ruining what would otherwise be a perfect outcome.

We often want to speed up the spiritual development of others instead of waiting patiently for it to happen naturally. Countless people have been harmed by the impatience of well-meaning friends. If we truly want to be helpful, we must learn not to overdo it. It’s hard to just do our part and then step back to let God work, but sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do. Our eagerness to help can actually cause more harm than good, so we would be better off leaving some things in God’s hands.