​Ask for Hashem’s Help to Do Mitzvos

From Ohr Avigdor Shaar Bitachon by Rabbi Avigdor Miller 

After a person has chosen to proceed in a certain way, it is very appropriate to ask Hashem for help in carrying out his decision. When we pray to Hashem that He should cause us to do teshuvah or to have yiras Shamayim (fear of Heaven), we are asking that the conditions be favorable for us to follow through on these choices.

First of all, we pray that we will have contact with good people who can influence us. Also, we hope to be in a place where learning materials are available and we ask Hashem to provide us with teachers to help us who know what’s right and wrong. Added to that is our need for good health so that we will be strong enough to carry out the good things we have chosen. We also have a need for information, such the halachah in the issue we are faced with.

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This is not like business, where we are not told which is the way to succeed

We can’t ask Hashem to make the final decision for us when it comes to a mitzvah, but we are asking Hashem to give us all the means that are necessary: we should have the money to do the mitzvos we like to do, we should have the time to do the mitzvos, and we should have the energy to do the mitzvos. We’re asking for all the circumstances we need to make the final decision about what to do, but the final decision has to be ours. Chovos Halevavos is saying, “Don’t trust in Hashem to make you choose one over the other.”

This is not like in matters of business or even a health issue, where we are not told which is the way to succeed. That’s something that’s all bitachon. When it comes to avodas Hashem, there’s no doubt what to do, it’s all clear-cut. We know it’s good for us to do mitzvos. When a person is going to do a mitzvah, knows with full certitude that the mitzvah will benefit him. But when a person takes a medicine he doesn’t know if it will do good or maybe the opposite. He needs complete bitachon there. He looks to Hashem to step in and make the medicine have the proper effects.

Climb the Ladder: Think of something you can do to enhance a mitzvah, such as arriving early to shul in order to daven better, or having bentchers on the table to make it easier to bentch from a bentcher.