"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.htmlQuestion: "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-paradoxIn 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.htmlGOD 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".
Friday, 30 November 2007
God helps those that help themselves
Thursday, 29 November 2007
The Law of Attraction
So what's my problem with the law of attraction? Well, nothing in and of itself. It is one of God's spiritual laws and it works - just like it says on the can! My problem is that we are not being shown the full can.
This means that there are issues in the application of this law and the limited perspective with which it is portrayed. It is touted that one merely need focus on something and repeatedly visualize it and, low and behold, it will come to you. In short, it is being held up as a magic formula.
This is not the truth and people are being misled over one of the most basic laws of the universe...
Many people try to work with the law of attraction and only end up pushing the things they desire away from them. The wannabe millionaire frantically visualizing success yet not having enough money to pay the rent is an all too familiar tale. There can be many causes for this. It could be, for example that you simply want it too much. There is a delicate balance between desiring something so that it burns like a fire in your chest and becoming too attached to the desired result.
Buddha taught of the need for non-attachment. In this he tried to teach us a great spiritual truth. Remember also what Christ taught when he said:
"...for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him."
Matthew 6:8
The problem with using the law of attraction for specific things is that we do not know what we need. We may think we do, but in reality we do not. How many times have you looked back on what seemed like the worst time of your life to realise that, had things gone any other way, you would have ended up in a much worse predicament. We do not have the phrase "a blessing in disguise" for nothing.
The way to use the law of attraction is to realise that it is all tied up with vibration. We are nothing but energy in motion. Science has effectively demonstrated this. Another word for 'energy in motion' is 'vibration'. The law of attraction is based on the hermetic axiom that like attracts like. If you play a single piano note in a room with another piano, the same note on that other piano will start to sound as well.
Therefore to have health, happiness and abundance in our lives, we must use the law of attraction to gain those things. Yet, to actually have them, we cannot start specifying the form in which they will manifest. It may be that we want a particular house but, if we could see things as God does, we might realise that there is a better house for us. What we must do is to attune our rate of vibration so that the things we desire are attracted to us but at the same time realise that "...your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him."
The question now becomes, how do we raise our rate of vibration? There are many ways, just as there are many ways of lowering it too. In fact, every action, every thought and every feeling we have or do is constantly raising or lowering our rate of vibration. This is what is known as karma.
It is no accident, for instance that spiritual teachers advise against things such as alcohol, drugs, smoking, swearing, pornography and the like. All these things serve to lower our vibrations. Just as watching or reading certain things, if not done so in the correct way, can also lower our rate. Similarly, reading or watching positive material, thinking thoughts of gratitude and love, praying, meditating and so forth can all help to raise our vibrational rate.
What it all comes down to is this, if you want good things to happen in your life then you would do better to have good positive thoughts, feelings and actions. If you have bad, negative and depressive thoughts, feelings and actions, then the things that correspond to that will be drawn to you like a magnet.
Guard your thoughts and your guard you life. Of course, maintaining this is not easy. However, this is what is required of each and every one of us.
The next thing to look at is why things do not come to us even when we get all these things right. That, however, is another post!
A message of hope
I wrote the following in my journal. It started off very depressive and negative but turned into a message of hope. As a result, I decided to include it on my blog in an unedited format. I pass it on in the hope that it may provide a little hope to someone else when they feel that life is getting to them...
29th November 2007
I've been feeling very down and negative of late. This next entry or, should I say, this current entry is intended to be a release session where I let all my negative and depressed feelings out and release them into this journal. This is a technique I've just read about in a magazine.
Ok, so what is wrong? I guess I'm feeling like I'm just a waste of space and cannot seem to do anything right or well enough. I fantasise that I am a writer or some sort of guru in the making or indeed even that I could reach enlightenment in the future.
In reality it's all make believe. Look at me! I'm earning precisely nothing. I have three failed businesses under my belt and I cannot even motivate myself to collect any of the money owed to me from my customers - even though I'm owed the equivalent of several months worth of living expenses.
I feel like a joke. Who am I kidding that I can achieve anything at all? I should just kill myself and get it all over with. I am so sad and lonely. I have no one to talk to at all. It is my fault really because I do not share my feelings very much. I feel there is no one I can turn to. Instead I turn to God. I would love to say that in God all my troubles are healed but they do not seem to be.
Tony Robbins says that we should not wish our troubles away because they are what makes us grow and become better people. He uses the analogy of a body builder. When asked how he got so big, the body builder replied that every day he pushes against massive resistance to build himself up and by doing that he gets a little stronger each time. The results are what you now see.
I know my troubles are the lessons I must face in life and that if I was not fully equipped to deal with them or strong enough to handle them emotionally, I would not be given them. Yet, through all this I just get so weary and tired and feel like I've gone ten rounds, not just with Mike Tyson, but also with my best friend who has decided to use all my weakest points to destroy me emotionally and psychologically. Worst of all, I do not know whether there will be a bell to signify the end of the round or whether this round will continue for the rest of my life. All I know for sure is that, just as the punches and kicks continue, so too do the humiliating taunts. They say that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but calling names will never hurt me". If only that were true.
I wish I had a passage from the bible to call on at times like this. Instead I think of Job. I think that all that befalls me is nothing compared to Job and his ails. I trust that through it all, God has a plan. God is with me and in God all shall be made right. In the words of the Elvis song "You'll never walk alone" I am comforted:
When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
And so I am comforted somewhat. I feel the release that I so desperately needed. The tears flowed and washed me. All is not rosy, but I am given the courage to continue a little further. Winston Churchill once said:"When you're going through hell, keep going".
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
How to be creative
The way to be creative is very simple, but it is a technique that many people do not feel comfortable using.
To have great ideas, you must come up with lots and lots of ideas. Your ideas will, of necessity, be good, bad AND ugly. They will be so cringingly awful that you will most probably dismiss them before you even allow yourself to write them down.
This is a massive mistake. Brilliant people have just as many bad ideas as everyone else. The difference is that they do not let that fact stop them from coming up with loads more ideas. They simply set aside their judgement while they are in the brainstorming phase and then later on they discard the ideas that are not so brilliant.
The secret is to trust that if you come up with enough ideas and do not judge them at all, you will eventually come up with a few good ideas.
Sound too good to be true? How many people do you know that actually allow themselves to come up with lots of bad ideas? Not too many I would imagine. Most people are so conditioned by society to judge everything, that anything different or new gets automatically discarded as rubbish.
Try this technique with honesty and an open mind. It never fails - assuming you stick with it. Remember though, you may have to have a thousand ideas that do not work until you get one that does. Look up Thomas Edison on the net to see how many attempts it took him to invent the lightbulb...
Most aspiring artists are told to throw away their first 100 paintings because the chances are they will be cliched or simply not very good. In the same way, potential novelists are told that they will probably have to write around a million words before they are any good, or that they will more than likely not get a publishing contract until they have written three or four novels. I ask again, how many of us are that dedicated that we would stick it out? Success comes to those that persist and never quit.
