“The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves”

Introduction

There are many sayings, quotes, and truths that people think are in the Bible but actually are not. Some are harmless, but others can do great damage. This series will explore some of these and look at what the Bible says about them.

Quote: The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves

A Farmer was driving his wagon along a miry country road after a heavy rain. The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut. The farmer climbed down from his seat and stood beside the wagon looking at it but without making the least effort to get it out of the rut. All he did was to curse his bad luck and call loudly on Hercules to come to his aid. Then, it is said, Hercules really did appear, saying: "Put your shoulder to the wheel, man, and urge on your horses. Do you think you can move the wagon by simply looking at it and whining about it? Hercules will not help unless you make some effort to help yourself." And when the farmer put his shoulder to the wheel and urged on the horses, the wagon moved very readily, and soon the Farmer was riding along in great content and with a good lesson learned. Self help is the best help. Heaven helps those who help themselves. — Hercules and the Wagoner, Aesop’s Fables

https://www.literature.com/book/hercules_and_the_wagoner_2272#:~:text=%22Hercules%20and%20the%20Wagoner%22%20is,helps%20those%20who%20help%20themselves.

God helps them that helps themselves — Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanak

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/century0765.pdf

Surface message it conveys

Promotes the importance of self-reliance and industriousness rather than depending on divine intervention.

Problem messages it conveys

God will only help those who are actively doing something to remedy their situation

Unless you do something, God will not

God’s hands are tied when yours are idle

Measure against Bible

God expects us to do our part

God desires for us to trust in him, but that does not mean that we are to stand idly by doing nothing

James 2:18–26 “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

God does help those who cannot help themselves

In fact, that’s the essential message of Scripture. Mankind sinned and was hopeless, so Jesus came and died for them.

John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

God tests us, teaching us to rely on Him

Testing comes in a variety of avenues: God, us, Satan, and life. God will use any and all of these to test us/prepare us for growth

Exodus 14, Moses and Israel hedge in by mountains, backed up against the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army closing in

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Life brings circumstance only God’s can resolve

In spirt of our best efforts, sometimes there is nothing we can do about a situation. In these situations only God can make the difference.

Zechariah 4:6 “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

Mark 5:25–29 “And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.”

Conclusion