That's Not In The Book

God Help’s Those That Help Themselves

We’re examining popular statements people think are in the Bible, but they aren’t found in scripture. There are millions of Bibles in America, yet there is an alarming level of biblical ignorance. George Barna leads an organization that conducts research to determine the state of the American Church and culture. His surveys reveal some interesting beliefs:

65% believe the Bible “answers all or the most of the basic questions of life.” But 44% believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon teach the same truths. 60% of Americans can’t name half of the Ten Commandments; 63% can’t name the four gospels of the New Testament; 31% believe a good person can earn his/her way into heaven; 81% believe that “God helps those who help themselves” is a direct quote from the Bible.

Bill O’Reilly hosts a popular show on Fox News Channel called “The No Spin Zone.” In January 2002, O’Reilly was interviewing the pastor of the 5th Street Presbyterian Church in New York City, which has an active ministry to help the homeless. O’Reilly told the pastor, “Jesus would have demanded that the homeless people shape themselves up or else, because, we all know the passage ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’” Oops. That statement revealed that Mr. O’Reilly is certainly no theologian.

“God helps those who help themselves” isn’t found in the scriptures. But it certainly sounds good doesn’t it? Let’s examine three aspects of this spurious Biblical misquote.

Most of these Biblical misquotes contain a degree of truth. After all, a broken clock is right twice a day! There is a measure of truth in this saying, but not the full measure. Some suggest this saying was originated by Benjamin Franklin who published it in Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1735. But Ben only popularized it. Most likely it originated from an old Aesop fable that tells the following story: “A wagoneer was once driving a heavy load along a very muddy way. He came to a part of the road where the wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper sank the wheels. So the wagoneer threw down his whip, knelt down, and prayed to Hercules: “Oh, Hercules, help me in my hour of distress.” But Hercules appeared to him and said, “Man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel. The gods help them that help themselves.”

How many times have we said this one? More than once most likely, and on some levels, it makes sense for us to believe in this because we are a people that like to depend on ourselves, don’t need help from anyone, that we can handle it all but in fact we can’t. We almost despise having to ask for help for anything don’t we? If we are working on something, trying to fix it and we just can’t seem to get the job done it is usually then and only then will we call for help.

Not that long ago, I was replacing the faucet in the kitchen and I just couldn’t get the old one off. I keep reaching up, barely able to see what I was doing and I couldn’t get it to budge. After fighting it for a while and Crystal seeing that I was getting more aggravated, I stood up, said something like, “Oh, you’re coming off one way or another!” She asked what I was going to do as I was walking out the door and I said, I’m getting a saw. She called Preston and told him that dad was bringing a saw into the kitchen and that he needed to come help quick. Which he did, but at this point I had had enough and it had to be taught a lesson, so I quickly cut it off the sink. I felt vindicated!

I did it! It was off and the new one ready to be installed which by this point Preston proceeded to put the new one in for me. I think because they didn’t want me to get the saw out again in case something else aggravated me.

We all get to that point where we want to be self-sufficient, not depend or need anyone or anything, we want to be strong enough, smart enough, patient enough, to handle anything but that just isn’t the case. Whether it’s a faucet or sin, we can’t depend on ourselves, to believe that we are strong enough to help ourselves.

God helps those who cannot help themselves.

Charles Spurgeon

When we look at our life and the things that we must put up with daily, and add to that the sin of the world bearing down on us, there is no way we can ever help ourselves, we can’t stand against the forces of evil that are bountiful in this world.

These messages, often presented as universal truths, can sometimes be misleading, and even contrary to the teachings of the Bible. It's important for us as believers to be discerning, to test these mantras against the truth of Scripture, and to ensure that our beliefs and actions align with God's Word, rather than the popular opinion of the day.

Take for example, the mantra "follow your heart." It sounds appealing, doesn't it? It suggests a sense of freedom, of autonomy, of being true to oneself. But let's consider what the Bible says about the heart. Jeremiah 17:9

The New King James Version (Chapter 17)

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

tells us that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" If we were to follow our hearts without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we could easily be led astray.

There are times where this statement has it’s place in our life, you wouldn’t expect to get a job if you weren’t out interviewing for a position. There are some things that we have to take responsibility for if we expect them to happen. And indeed, God makes it possible for us to have an earth with soil, and sun, and rain so vegetables will grow, but we have to harvest and prepare those vegetables so they can be eaten. So, in that sense, it is true that God helps those who help themselves. We have to pray to God, we have to seek God’s help, God’s guidance, and direction, we have to thank God for our many blessings, but we also have to work.

The New King James Version (Psalm 121)

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? 2. My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

The Teacher’s Bible Commentary The Lord Is Keeper (Psalm 121)

The latter part of verse 1 is actually a question, not the completion of a statement. Observe the rendering of RSV: “From whence does my help come?” Verse 2 is the answer.

We don’t just sit around and do nothing. The first thing we should do is pray and then we behave as if the prayer is already being answered. This is what Jesus meant when He said,

The New King James Version (Chapter 7)

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7

The self-help movement really began in 1967 with a book called, “I’m ok, you’re ok” by Thomas Harris and since then people have been spending millions of dollars trying every self help book, program, seminar, hypnosis and everything else you can imagine trying to figure out the secret of being totally independent and self reliant.

Believing in our own strength leads to pride and an arrogant mindset. We all are born with a self-centered personality devoted to promote self and to protect self. We create our own little self-centered universe. You can see it today in cocky sports stars and celebrities, or you can see it in a three-year-old when you are trying to teach them to do something and they look at you and say, “I can do it myself!”

Have you ever thought what the first sin was in the Bible? It was a prideful worship leader believing in their own strength, believing they could do a better job than God was doing and eventually wanted worship to come through him instead of God and that got Satan thrown out of heaven.

Pride affects many areas in our life, our relationship with God, our prayer life, our relationship with each others, our marriages, work and family. Pride makes us think that certain people are inferior to us.

That’s human nature. We want to think we can do anything. When we’ve done something, we’re proud of self. When we accomplish something, we want to take all the credit. But the Bible says it is God who gives us the ability to accomplish anything. If you ask a successful person the key to his success he may answer that he worked harder and smarter than the others. That is nothing but pride and it will ruin you.

Proverbs 16:5 “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.”

How about turn to the book you need, all the answers are right there in our scripture,

The New King James Version (Psalm 121)

1. I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? 2. My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

No one is self made, no one is self reliant, no one can say that we built anything in our lives apart from God, because it is a because of God helping us throughout our lives that we have any chance to survive. I want you to think about that for a minute, think about the earth, universe, the entire cosmos and that God created it all, He so ordered all of creation, placed us here in time and space and some people will believe that they are able to do what they do because of themselves and the power they generate? If all we had was our own power to help ourselves we would have failed long ago because contrary to what some will still want to believe, we cannot help ourselves and scripture tells us this in Ephesians.

The New King James Version Chapter 2

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Stop living life under the illusion of your own strength, God is in the business of helping those that cannot help themselves, give Him a chance to come in and move in your life, receive the forgiveness that He offers you. Too many people try to work their way to God because of the guilt they feel from their past, to try and earn His trust because they are afraid they will get what they deserve.

If we all got what we deserve then we would all end up in hell! But my bible says...”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

But God doesn’t know what I’ve done to Him! For those that feel that way, the response to that is, “You don’t know what God has done and is doing for you.”

God wants us to come to Him SO HE can help change us. “ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” So many of us are tired and weary because we keep trying and trying to fix our issues and deal with our burdens alone and Jesus is saying, “GIVE IT TO ME!”

Matthew 11:28 NKJV

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

When we can come to Christ as we are, powerless, helpless we can then realize what the psalmist is saying about the help that we need,

My help comes from the LORD,

Ps 121:2.