Psalm 10:14 But you, God, see the
trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The
victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.
Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. 16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
Psalm 121:1-2, I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
The judge was talking to the thief. He had been caught stealing, finally caught, after a long career, years of getting away with it and living a pretty good life as a result. The man was a professional. He had a wife and kids and a nice house. But his only income was from his secret life as a thief. The judge was incredulous and asked him to explain all this. He said, “Didn’t you even have a twinge of guilt? How could you live like this for so long?” The answer was, “Well sir, it’s my religion. Every time I took some thing I was just helping myself. Doesn’t the good book say “God helps those who help themselves?””
When a thief helps himself to your stuff, do you want him to be thinking, “God helps those who help themselves?” If that statement was really true, all thieves who make it a habit or profession to help themselves, ought to be rich and uncaught. In fact, if that statement was really in Scripture as a maxim to follow, we should all be trying to be thieves!
When I put it that way, I hope you start wondering about why that statement is such a common Christian cliché? To tell you how common it is, do you remember when Jay Leno was the host of the tonight show? He used to go out on the street to ask people questions. He called it jaywalking. On one occasion he asked people to name the ten commandments. One of the most common responses? “God helps those who help themselves!” Not only is that not a commandment, it isn’t even in the Bible! And yet, a Barna research survey found that as many as eight out of ten Americans think that it is in the Bible and more than half were very sure! So why do so many people think that way?
Well, I believe the exact answer to that question is, most people do not really read their Bibles to know very much at all about what is in there. But if you ask them about this popular cliché, well, they know they’ve heard it before, and hey, it’s about God, and it sounds right, so it must be in the Bible. People assume it’s in the Bible because it is about God. But let me tell you where it really came from. I did a little research using Wikipedia.
The phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is a popular motto that emphasizes the importance of self-initiative and agency. It originated in ancient Greece and may originally have been a very old Greek proverb. The modern English wording appears first in Algernon Sidney's work, but Benjamin Franklin made it really popular when he quoted Algernon’s version in his, Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Now to be fair, there are other verses in the Bible that sound a lot like “God helps those who help themselves.” These underscore the believers' duties to work, both for themselves and their families. Proverbs 6:10-11says, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” Proverbs 12:11 says, “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” 12:24 says, “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” 13:4 says, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” And perhaps best known among actual Bible verses is 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
But actually, while all of those are correctly opposed to human laziness, or thievery, none of those are actually about what God does to help people. The truth is, hard work earns its own reward and that’s what all these sayings are about. We just assume that God blesses hard work. And in a way he does. But usually as a natural consequence of the hard work.
There is some practical truth there. For example, look how this applies to employment. It looks like God helps those who help themselves because if I were unemployed and simply sat around praying, “God please give me a job,” it might be a long wait. But if I add action to my prayers and prepare a resume, apply for jobs and go to interviews, in other words, help myself get a job, I am much more likely to get a job for which I can rightly give thanks to God for his help. If I work hard at a good education, and earn a degree, I might get an even better job in a field I am really interested in and be blessed.
We can pray and pray as if it’s all up to God. But he has already given us many blessings of resources that are like gifts to us. God has given us brains. If we use them to help ourselves to a more fruitful and productive life, we will feel blessed and might even say, “Somebody up there likes me.”
Even the Muslim Quran agrees with that thought. There is a verse in it that says, “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." It’s a very simple religious belief that is common in most forms of religion. Even idol worshippers get this. As a common sense rule for living well, it belongs in Christianity too. But it’s not the gospel.
As a matter of fact, very responsible hard working people can suffer tremendous loss too! Does that mean God stopped helping them even though they were helping themselves? Then what happens to this idea that God helps those who help themselves?
Here’s another example. Will God help me by putting food on my table just because I pray for it? If I do nothing to help myself to a good meal, don’t buy food, prepare food, set the table and load my plate, won’t I go hungry? It sounds like that’s what should happen. But wait a second. I could go to the Shepherd’s Table for a meal. In that place I could eat even though someone else bought the food, prepared the food, set the table and even loaded my plate. At the very least I have to make the effort to help myself eat it. But in a nursing home, someone else might feed me too, and it would mean that God and other people are helping me stay alive, even though I am barely helping myself at all. And some people want to end these programs that help the homeless and the disabled because they believe it just prevents them from ever getting to the place where they want to help themselves.
In a sense there is truth to the idea that God helps those who help themselves. But another problem with it is that sometimes we use this saying as a way to avoid our obligation to help others. James, who wrote one the New Testament letters in the Bible put his finger on this problem when he said, in chapter 2, verse16, “If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”
The fact is, some people truly cannot help themselves. Sometimes people are in a hole so deep that they can’t climb out without help. There is the case of a homeless man who was asking for money. The young seminary graduate imagined that he could help the man turn his life around in no time at all. He took the man to lunch. They picked up a paper and looked through the want ads. The seminary grad offered to help the man get a job.
Ok let’s start with the resume. Contact information? Sorry, no phone and no address. Well let’s skip that for now. How about references? The answer was, “If I had references I wouldn’t be out here on the street.” Ok, let’s just see if you are qualified for any of these jobs. If they required a driver’s license he was out of luck. If they required a diploma or a GED he didn’t have the documents to prove it.
Sometimes people face challenges they don’t know how to overcome on their own, or they simply don’t have the resources to do it. Our calling is not to shrug off responsibility so easily by saying, “Well, God helps those who help themselves.” Instead, God commands his people to take special care of the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the needy.
As Scripture reveals over and over again, God works though people. We can’t sit around waiting for God to miraculously right the wrongs in society. We are the instruments God uses to change the world. Our times of prayer are meant to empower us and guide us into action. So maybe it would be a better expression of God’s heart if our proverb was actually worded like this, “God helps those who help others.”
But then we could run into another problem. A corollary of this proverb is “Don’t cross oceans for people who wouldn’t cross a puddle for you.” And I just saw this on Facebook: “I don’t care if you’re black, white, straight, gay, rich or poor. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Simple as that.” That sounds right. But the reason you help somebody is because they need help, not just if they are nice to you. Much better is Mother Theresa’s rule: “People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
God doesn’t just help those that help themselves. God helps the helpless and that’s the gospel. That’s grace! God also doesn’t just help those who are nice to him. The Bible says, in Romans 5:6-8, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Powerless means helpless. Sinners means, enemies of God.
Romans also says, in 5:10, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
God does not help those who help themselves! Especially when it comes to our salvation and understanding of the gospel, we have to know that we can’t do anything to save ourselves. We have to admit our own total helplessness. That’s why the sermon on the mount begins by saying “blessed are those who are poor in spirit.” Those are the people who know they don’t stand a chance with God unless they can believe he is merciful and gracious. And when we see Christ on the cross we see God’s love in action and we know that God is merciful and gracious! He so loved the world that he sent his one and only son into the world so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Amen.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.
Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. 16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
Psalm 121:1-2, I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
The judge was talking to the thief. He had been caught stealing, finally caught, after a long career, years of getting away with it and living a pretty good life as a result. The man was a professional. He had a wife and kids and a nice house. But his only income was from his secret life as a thief. The judge was incredulous and asked him to explain all this. He said, “Didn’t you even have a twinge of guilt? How could you live like this for so long?” The answer was, “Well sir, it’s my religion. Every time I took some thing I was just helping myself. Doesn’t the good book say “God helps those who help themselves?””
When a thief helps himself to your stuff, do you want him to be thinking, “God helps those who help themselves?” If that statement was really true, all thieves who make it a habit or profession to help themselves, ought to be rich and uncaught. In fact, if that statement was really in Scripture as a maxim to follow, we should all be trying to be thieves!
When I put it that way, I hope you start wondering about why that statement is such a common Christian cliché? To tell you how common it is, do you remember when Jay Leno was the host of the tonight show? He used to go out on the street to ask people questions. He called it jaywalking. On one occasion he asked people to name the ten commandments. One of the most common responses? “God helps those who help themselves!” Not only is that not a commandment, it isn’t even in the Bible! And yet, a Barna research survey found that as many as eight out of ten Americans think that it is in the Bible and more than half were very sure! So why do so many people think that way?
Well, I believe the exact answer to that question is, most people do not really read their Bibles to know very much at all about what is in there. But if you ask them about this popular cliché, well, they know they’ve heard it before, and hey, it’s about God, and it sounds right, so it must be in the Bible. People assume it’s in the Bible because it is about God. But let me tell you where it really came from. I did a little research using Wikipedia.
The phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is a popular motto that emphasizes the importance of self-initiative and agency. It originated in ancient Greece and may originally have been a very old Greek proverb. The modern English wording appears first in Algernon Sidney's work, but Benjamin Franklin made it really popular when he quoted Algernon’s version in his, Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Now to be fair, there are other verses in the Bible that sound a lot like “God helps those who help themselves.” These underscore the believers' duties to work, both for themselves and their families. Proverbs 6:10-11says, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.” Proverbs 12:11 says, “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” 12:24 says, “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” 13:4 says, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” And perhaps best known among actual Bible verses is 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
But actually, while all of those are correctly opposed to human laziness, or thievery, none of those are actually about what God does to help people. The truth is, hard work earns its own reward and that’s what all these sayings are about. We just assume that God blesses hard work. And in a way he does. But usually as a natural consequence of the hard work.
There is some practical truth there. For example, look how this applies to employment. It looks like God helps those who help themselves because if I were unemployed and simply sat around praying, “God please give me a job,” it might be a long wait. But if I add action to my prayers and prepare a resume, apply for jobs and go to interviews, in other words, help myself get a job, I am much more likely to get a job for which I can rightly give thanks to God for his help. If I work hard at a good education, and earn a degree, I might get an even better job in a field I am really interested in and be blessed.
We can pray and pray as if it’s all up to God. But he has already given us many blessings of resources that are like gifts to us. God has given us brains. If we use them to help ourselves to a more fruitful and productive life, we will feel blessed and might even say, “Somebody up there likes me.”
Even the Muslim Quran agrees with that thought. There is a verse in it that says, “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." It’s a very simple religious belief that is common in most forms of religion. Even idol worshippers get this. As a common sense rule for living well, it belongs in Christianity too. But it’s not the gospel.
As a matter of fact, very responsible hard working people can suffer tremendous loss too! Does that mean God stopped helping them even though they were helping themselves? Then what happens to this idea that God helps those who help themselves?
Here’s another example. Will God help me by putting food on my table just because I pray for it? If I do nothing to help myself to a good meal, don’t buy food, prepare food, set the table and load my plate, won’t I go hungry? It sounds like that’s what should happen. But wait a second. I could go to the Shepherd’s Table for a meal. In that place I could eat even though someone else bought the food, prepared the food, set the table and even loaded my plate. At the very least I have to make the effort to help myself eat it. But in a nursing home, someone else might feed me too, and it would mean that God and other people are helping me stay alive, even though I am barely helping myself at all. And some people want to end these programs that help the homeless and the disabled because they believe it just prevents them from ever getting to the place where they want to help themselves.
In a sense there is truth to the idea that God helps those who help themselves. But another problem with it is that sometimes we use this saying as a way to avoid our obligation to help others. James, who wrote one the New Testament letters in the Bible put his finger on this problem when he said, in chapter 2, verse16, “If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”
The fact is, some people truly cannot help themselves. Sometimes people are in a hole so deep that they can’t climb out without help. There is the case of a homeless man who was asking for money. The young seminary graduate imagined that he could help the man turn his life around in no time at all. He took the man to lunch. They picked up a paper and looked through the want ads. The seminary grad offered to help the man get a job.
Ok let’s start with the resume. Contact information? Sorry, no phone and no address. Well let’s skip that for now. How about references? The answer was, “If I had references I wouldn’t be out here on the street.” Ok, let’s just see if you are qualified for any of these jobs. If they required a driver’s license he was out of luck. If they required a diploma or a GED he didn’t have the documents to prove it.
Sometimes people face challenges they don’t know how to overcome on their own, or they simply don’t have the resources to do it. Our calling is not to shrug off responsibility so easily by saying, “Well, God helps those who help themselves.” Instead, God commands his people to take special care of the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the needy.
As Scripture reveals over and over again, God works though people. We can’t sit around waiting for God to miraculously right the wrongs in society. We are the instruments God uses to change the world. Our times of prayer are meant to empower us and guide us into action. So maybe it would be a better expression of God’s heart if our proverb was actually worded like this, “God helps those who help others.”
But then we could run into another problem. A corollary of this proverb is “Don’t cross oceans for people who wouldn’t cross a puddle for you.” And I just saw this on Facebook: “I don’t care if you’re black, white, straight, gay, rich or poor. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Simple as that.” That sounds right. But the reason you help somebody is because they need help, not just if they are nice to you. Much better is Mother Theresa’s rule: “People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
God doesn’t just help those that help themselves. God helps the helpless and that’s the gospel. That’s grace! God also doesn’t just help those who are nice to him. The Bible says, in Romans 5:6-8, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Powerless means helpless. Sinners means, enemies of God.
Romans also says, in 5:10, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
God does not help those who help themselves! Especially when it comes to our salvation and understanding of the gospel, we have to know that we can’t do anything to save ourselves. We have to admit our own total helplessness. That’s why the sermon on the mount begins by saying “blessed are those who are poor in spirit.” Those are the people who know they don’t stand a chance with God unless they can believe he is merciful and gracious. And when we see Christ on the cross we see God’s love in action and we know that God is merciful and gracious! He so loved the world that he sent his one and only son into the world so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Amen.
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