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God Helps Those Who Help Themselves?
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
I have heard this phrase repeated often in my life time – God helps those who help themselves. Both my grandmother and my mother would tell me this on various occasions especially when they were trying to get me to do a task that I thought was too difficult. Most recently, I heard it from a friend who said to me, “As it says in the Bible, God help those who help themselves.” It made me think. Where is that in scripture? Well, it is not there! It is not in the Bible.
I did a quick Wikipedia search and found that the phrase originated in ancient Greece and took on popularity in the US when Benjamin Franklin used it in Poor Richard’s Almanack. But despite its non-Biblical origins some people still use this phrase as though it is scriptural.
In my search for the phrase in scripture I found several references related to God’s help. The psalmist David often referred to God as his helper. In fact, he relied heavily on God’s help when his enemies pursued him and when it seemed that he had no friend. David prays,
“O you my help, come quickly to my aid!” Psalm 22:19
And,
“You who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!” Psalm 27:9
David is confident of God’s help and his confidence is based on his obedient relationship with God,
“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 34:17.
In Matthew 9:36 we read that Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were helpless. They were unable to help themselves, but Jesus could and did help them. Over and over in the New Testament we see Jesus responding to people who could not fix their own problems whether it was their own sickness, illness in their family or death of a loved one. They called on Jesus and he helped them.
We too can depend on God’s help at all times and in all situations. God doesn’t wait to see if we have done our part before he helps us. The only thing he requires is that we obey him and live righteously.
Have you obeyed God? If you have, you can depend on his help always.
