Well, my dear friend, it sounds to me like you have a lovely and giving spirit, the heart of a servant, and I praise God for this.  The family of God truly needs such in our assemblies in order for the body of Christ to function well, so your gift of “helps” is a highly valuable service to be sure. In 1 Corinthians 12:22, 28, we read: “(22) Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary…. (28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” But now, I think it is important to remember, when using our gifts, that while we do seek to bless others, we are truly serving Christ Jesus in the use of these special skills He has given us. Those we bless may not always respond in the manner in which we would like.  Sometimes, folks will forget to be thankful for our service, or indeed, as you have suggested, might tend to take us for granted; they might misunderstand our motives, or even take advantage of our kindness. Such responses can be discouraging in the extreme!  We might even become a bit jaded in our attitude towards others and be tempted to think that others always take advantage of us. Under such circumstances, we can become discouraged or feel unappreciated, and can be tempted not to want to give of ourselves any longer. We must guard against such thoughts as they do have their root in pride to the extent that we begin to feel that we should be treated better by others. Again, I think it is helpful for us to remember that whatever the response we feel we get from others when we help them, the Lord Himself sees our service, and after all is said and done, we are really serving Christ Jesus in our efforts, and that service to the Lord is never lost.  We read in Colossians 3:23-24: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”

But now, Christians are humans too, and we do have limits as to time, energy, and abilities. It is my thought that we must be realistic about how much we can accept as responsibilities.  I do believe we have to be honest with ourselves—if we take on more than we are prepared to happily and effectively do, the end result can be disastrous! We might experience failure in delivering what we set out to do if we are overwhelmed, and we might thus develop a sense of bitterness in our hearts for those we see as “manipulating” us to do more than we realistically can accomplish.  Sometimes, I think I see Christians trying to accept every need that comes their way, regardless of their capacity, because they want to serve the Lord, but in so doing they experience burn-out. I might suggest that when faced with all the needs we see around us, that we honestly evaluate our own capacities and existing responsibilities, and only accept that which we can effectively and happily deal with. If we feel we will be beyond our capacity, we might consider helping others to discover ways of meeting their needs which do not involve us directly.  Of course, since we are serving our Lord, we should pray to Him, asking Him what He would have us to do. I believe that we honor the Lord best when we can serve with a happy heart (2 Corinthians 9:6-8), and this would be difficult to do if we have bitten off more than we can chew. But we do not want to become suspicious or bitter about our brethren. In Galatians 6:9-10 we read: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”  (SF)  (601.5)