God helps those that help themselves

"God helps those that help themselves". I just prayed a simple prayer for help from God and that was the reply I got. It came instantly like a bolt of lightening. "God helps those that help themselves". Well, there you have it.

I felt compelled to research this. Here is what I found...



From http://www.gotquestions.org/God-help-themselves.html

Question: "God helps those who help themselves - is it in the Bible?"
Answer: "God helps those who help themselves" is probably the most often quoted phrase that is not found in the Bible. This is actually a quote from Ben Franklin and it appeared in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1757. In fact the Bible teaches the opposite. God helps the helpless! Isaiah 25:4 declares, "For You have been a defence for the helpless, a defence for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat..." Romans 5:6 tells us, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
In terms of salvation, we are all utterly helpless. We are all infected by sin (Romans 3:23), and condemned as a result of that sin (Romans 6:23). Nothing we can do on our own can remedy this situation (Isaiah 64:6). Thankfully, God is the helper of the helpless. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus paid the penalty that we were incapable of paying (2 Corinthians 5:21). God provided the "help" that we need precisely because we could not help ourselves.
Apart from salvation, there is perhaps a way that the concept "God helps those who help themselves" is correct. As an example, if you asked me to help you move a piece of furniture, but then just watched me as I moved the furniture for you, I was not actually helping you. I would be doing the work for you. Many Christians fall into the trap of inactivity. Many Christians ask God for help, but then expect God to do everything Himself. They excuse this by pointing to the fact that God will provide according to His will and in His timing. However, this is not a reason for inactivity. As a specific example, if you are in need of a job, ask the Lord to help you find a job - but then be active in actually looking for a job. While it is in His power to do so, it is highly unlikely that God will cause employers to come looking for you!

From http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/the-christian-paradox

In the days before his crucifixion, Jesus said you could tell the righteous from the damned by whether they'd fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger and visited the prisoner.
...It may be true that God helps those who help themselves, both financially and emotionally. (Certainly fortune does.) But if so it's still a subsidiary truth of Christianity.
... When one of the Pharisees asked Jesus what the core of the law was, Jesus replied: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.''
This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself''.
Love your neighbour as yourself: although its rhetorical power has been dimmed by repetition, it is a radical notion. Jesus made it very clear who the neighbour you were supposed to love was: the poor person, the sick person, the naked person, the hungry person. The last shall be made first; turn the other cheek; a rich person aiming for heaven is like a camel trying to walk through the eye of a needle.
On and on and on - a call for a radical, voluntary and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the principle of love.
...The consumer gospel of the suburban mega churches is a perfect match for conservative economic creeds about personal responsibility instead of collective action. Privatise social security? Keep health care for people who can afford it? File those under God helps those who help themselves.
... Admittedly, this is hope against hope; more likely the money changers and power brokers will remain ascendant in our spiritual life. Since the days of Constantine, emperors and rich men have sought to co-opt the teachings of Jesus. As in so many areas of our increasingly market-tested lives, the TV men, politicians and the Christian interest groups have found a way to make each of us complicit in that travesty, too.
They have invited us to subvert the church of Jesus even as we celebrate it. With their help we have made golden calves of ourselves, become a nation of terrified, self-obsessed idols. It works, and it may well keep working for a long time to come. When Americans hunger for selfless love and are fed only love of self, they will remain hungry, and too often hungry people just come back for more of the same.

From http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/16/messages/895.html

GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES - "Some faith adages roll off the tongue, like 'God helps those who help themselves.' But the saying is not biblical and, in fact, violates a primary scriptural teaching that only God determines a person's destiny, according to religion analyst George Barna (the phrase).is an ancient proverb that shows up in the literature of many cultures, including a 1736 edition of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac. But it does not appear in the Bible and suggests a spiritual self-reliance inconsistent with Christianity, said David Kinnaman, vice president of Barna Research Group.

It seems that the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is not in the bible. The question remains though, is it the will of god? From the reading I have done and from the research above, it would seem that god does not want us to remain idle and wants us to take action within gods will. However, it would be more likely that "God helps those who love god with all their hearts and love their neighbour". How does one love thy neighbour? If we look at Christ's actions, it is clear that the way he loved them was by helping them. It seems therefore, that the saying should be "God helps those who help others".