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God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, an age old adage
Some people think it's from the bible and yet there's no verse from the Bible that states this.
Still, to this day years after watching the 1970's version of Where The Red Fern Grows and always thinking about what the Grandpa said to the little boy who wanted a blue tick pup, I still wonder how much truth there is to it.
I've always lived sort of in a flux with God, where miracles don't happen, and I've had to get everything from the blood and sweat of my brow. Maybe it's cause I never really needed a miracle. You know, I was never in that true place of desperation so God was saving his miracles for those who truly needed it. And so I often struggle with the idea of praying for anything I'm not willing to meet God halfway on. I don't think I'll get it otherwise. And I have often relayed that kind of advice to other people as well.
I wonder how much truth is in this old saying though. In the "you gotta meet God halfway" advice the grandpa gives the kid in the movie. Why is it though that reality often bears this out...that we have to work so hard? Cause it builds character, and perseverance, longsuffering and fortitude I think.
Yet I see alot of people so unwilling to believe we work with God, and not God do all the work, they think man is somehow so damaged he can't even do anything, but is that really true? I wonder also too because I still see alot of these people prospering, and maybe there is no formula to how God works...maybe it's just an individual walk thing.
I guess I'd like to see a miracle someday. Right now with my finances and personal life would be great. But somehow I have a feeling God's waiting for me to meet him halfway like usual, and to be honest I'm just really tired...so I guess I'll have to wait on my desires til I build up some strength..
Still, to this day years after watching the 1970's version of Where The Red Fern Grows and always thinking about what the Grandpa said to the little boy who wanted a blue tick pup, I still wonder how much truth there is to it.
I've always lived sort of in a flux with God, where miracles don't happen, and I've had to get everything from the blood and sweat of my brow. Maybe it's cause I never really needed a miracle. You know, I was never in that true place of desperation so God was saving his miracles for those who truly needed it. And so I often struggle with the idea of praying for anything I'm not willing to meet God halfway on. I don't think I'll get it otherwise. And I have often relayed that kind of advice to other people as well.
I wonder how much truth is in this old saying though. In the "you gotta meet God halfway" advice the grandpa gives the kid in the movie. Why is it though that reality often bears this out...that we have to work so hard? Cause it builds character, and perseverance, longsuffering and fortitude I think.
Yet I see alot of people so unwilling to believe we work with God, and not God do all the work, they think man is somehow so damaged he can't even do anything, but is that really true? I wonder also too because I still see alot of these people prospering, and maybe there is no formula to how God works...maybe it's just an individual walk thing.
I guess I'd like to see a miracle someday. Right now with my finances and personal life would be great. But somehow I have a feeling God's waiting for me to meet him halfway like usual, and to be honest I'm just really tired...so I guess I'll have to wait on my desires til I build up some strength..
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brooke on -
To the adage I say: "What about those who can't help themselves?"
What about the retarded kid who can't fully distinguish right from wrong?
What about the paralytic who (obviously) can't walk?
What about the starving children in some far-off land where there is no food to be found anywhere and any day could be their last?
Does God love these people any less because they are not like the rest of us? No. He helps anyone and everyone who merely asks.
As for the part about meeting Him halfway, this is how I see it:
I like the story about the widow, her son and Elijah. She had only enough flour and oil for one loaf of bread (or cake, depending on who you listen to). Yet she make the bread for Elijah and she never ran out of flour and oil again.
Sacrifices for God's will, will ultimately yield more than sacrifices for your own will (also called splurging, possibly). Maybe the way to get the extra thousand dollars you need is to give ten dolalrs to a charity. I don't know exactly. But that's my siglet of advice.
Peace.
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Permalink Reply by Jenncsw on -
I have seen God work miracles in my life, but I have also made enough messes of parts of my life in the past that if God didn't come to pick me up, I would have never made it. But God didn't help me til I asked him to. I spent a lot of years being too proud to ask, or being mad at God and blaming him for the mistakes I had made and the sin I had committed.
As far as helping myself, for me, I guess, helping myself amounted to finally realizing that I couldn't do it myself. Anything I could do was only because of God. If I was doing it right it was because He was giving me that ability at that particular time. If I was doing well on my own, well, I was not really on my own, was I?
God showed Himself to me by coming to whole way to me so many times before I was willing to hear it. And even now, God presents opportunity to me many times and I am often too distracted by life to hear his quiet voice. I think those are the times where I am thinking I am having to meet him halfway. He is actually all the way there, but with all the "noise" of life it is hard to hear God. The kids are running around, homeschooling is nuts, husband is on the phone, dog mess on floor, dinner not cooked, etc. And if I just stopped for a minute, God usually has a way out, but I am too busy trying to fix it myself, because prior to following Jesus (3 years) I was fiercely independent, and there wasn't anyone who was going to tell ME what to do.
I don't' know if this fits with what you are talking about, but I guess what I'm saying is I think God is always all the way there, it is us who need to go all the way to Him. I find myself not going even half way a lot because I am wrapped into fixing it myself instead of giving it to God and listening for His solution. When I get stressed about stuff like that, I always try to think of sparrows. Like the verse where Jesus talks about clothing the sparrows, so we don't need to worry (verse? )
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Permalink Reply by Cassondra on -
I've often wondered about this. Where is the balance between doing everything yourself (not surrendering to God) and sitting back and being lazy and thinking God will do everything for you?
I don't think God wants you to "meet Him halfway," though. Can you even do half of what He can?
I think God will tell you what He wants you to do and then you should do it. But you have never had to nor been able to earn God's favor or love.
You do have power from Him, though. Power to speak against the enemy and unite what God has already done in the Spiritual Realm with the natural realm. And you can change things on this earth by prophesying and speaking over them. You can fight! You have the armor of God and the Spirit of the One who raised Christ from the dead.
But God is not going to leave you alone in the fight. He is your Commander in Chief. We are just soldiers.
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Permalink Reply by Taliesin on -
For me it's been alot like what happened to me this evening.
I had blown a tire somehow, and tore it right up, so when I was driving home people were trying to tell me I was driving on a flat tire. I have only once in my life seen someone change a tire, and that was my dad. I consequently forgot everything he ever taught me. So today when I had to change it all on my own, I was really at a loss for what to do. And I don't really know anyone around here except for Zoe's dad, and I don't have his number, so I was panicking for a minute not sure what to do...finally I decided to check and see if my manual had tire changing instructions, lo and behold it did. So, following it, and using the right tools, I was able to change the tire all on my own.
Now, God's a bit like the tools and the manual, he tells you what to do, and he gives you the equipment to do it, but my part is the grunt work. The bending over beside the car and jacking the lever up inch by inch. Fighting with the bolts holding the tire in. Getting my hands dirty, scratching my knees up, banging my fingernail and bruising it.
I am kinda at a place where that is life...that is the way God works.
Maybe, as someone pointed out, God is more there for people that physically can't do it, but for me, it's like God wants me to bleed a little, to work at it. And that's not such a bad thing, I mean now I know how to change a tire, though I hope to heck I don't have to again for quite some time. I know I can do it, and it did teach me patience and perseverence.
So...the work, the meeting halfway, etc. It's good for us in a way.
Not saying it's the way God always works though, which is why I disagree with the statement, cause I think that's what it's implying.
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Permalink Reply by Jenncsw on
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I had a tire blow on my car this summer with my 10 yo son (read "I know everything" 10 yo....) in the back seat. I had left my cell phone home, and was on the highway way up north. No exit for a few miles each way. You can bet I was praying about that one. I think God jumped in all the way and 1) kept me from killing my son who thought he would explain to me just how the tire was to be changed, 2) helped me figure out how to get the stupid thing on with the manual. Ugh. I got all banged up too. Not fun. I think if this had happened a few years ago, before I had Him on my side, I would have just wound up hollering at my son, cussing up a storm until the police or someone else showed up. And blaming God and my bad luck.
You sound like you have a really strong faith that you have had for a long time, and a really supportive family. And I know you have Zoe. That makes you really blessed, in the big, important stuff. It sounds like the small stuff is getting you down. I know how hard that can be. The small stuff really gets to be the big stuff and takes over if there is too much of it. I'll pray for you and Zoe and I hope things get a little more peaceful and simpler for you soon. No one needs exploding tires along with all life's other challenges!! God is on your side all the way. I know you know that.
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Permalink Reply by Taliesin on
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:) Thanks Jenn.
Yeah I really do have a very supportive family, most of whom I wish I had appreciated more now that I live 2000 something miles away from them. But I am hoping to meet some good people around here too. But it really is just one small thing adding up to another. Does get to you after awhile. Thanks for your prayers.
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Permalink Reply by living sacrifice on -
Hmm, well I think that God definitely has everybody on a journey and different people find themselves at different places on that journey.
I tend to think that those people who are being "lazy" like Cassondra was mentioning are also still running from God inside and working really hard not to let Him catch them, but they're running in darkness and the darkness blinds you to what's really going on.
To me it seems like the whole point of the Bible was Christ paying the price we could not pay, and all of our righteousness being as filthy rags. I was just reading a thing on the life of John Bunyan and Martin Luther and how they both shared a similar struggle with being good enough and righteous and so were constantly battling with God until they looked closely at the Bible and realized, "My righteousness is sitting at the right hand of the Father in the form of Jesus Christ. He is the One who saved and is saving us, so that when God looks at those who believe in His name, He sees the righteousness of Christ," or something to that effect.
As for miracles, those are interesting things, but I think a lot of times we forget that they are totally dependent on God and that He's the only One who can do them and He'll do them in His good and perfect time. The most important thing concerning miracles is to believe that God can and does do them, but that if He doesn't, His grace will be sufficient. The Hebrews 11 "faith chapter" is a really cool chapter for getting us excited that "yeah God does deliver us out of troubles and do miracles!" But if you look towards the end, just a couple verses after it says "through faith...they were delivered from the sword" it says, "they were...killed by the sword, destitute, afflicted, tortured" and they did it all through faith. That's the part that people tend to forget; that sometimes God shows himself through faith in miracles, and sometimes He proves himself true through the grace given to the suffering.
So the questions we all have to ask ourselves are really ones of counting the cost. Knowing that God allows suffering in the life of believers to bring them closer to Him, would you be willing to endure anything for the sake of being closer to God? Would He be enough even if you lost your entire family and everyone you hold dear? Would the glory of a greater resurrection be worth the agonizingly slow death of being crucified with Christ? Could you say, "Yes God, take it all if its for your glory in my life?" That is whole surrender of self and everything attached to it. I doubt very many of us have truly reached that point if we're honest with ourselves. But we should all be headed in that direction and working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
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Permalink Reply by Jenncsw on
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Wow. Forgot you had just moved. I am in the process of moving with my family 5,000 miles from upstate ny all the way to alaska. In the winter. We've lived here (in ny) our whole lives. So I can relate to the chaos. I am looking at it as a big adventure right now, but then we don't leave until January. Ask me again right after Christmas and I will either be locked up praying nonstop for patience and sanity or strangling some family member or mover or bank employee or....
Taliesin said::) Thanks Jenn.
Yeah I really do have a very supportive family, most of whom I wish I had appreciated more now that I live 2000 something miles away from them. But I am hoping to meet some good people around here too. But it really is just one small thing adding up to another. Does get to you after awhile. Thanks for your prayers.
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Permalink Reply by Deb on -
I think we work out what He works in.
Salvation is a miracle.
Maybe it was the Holy Spirit suggesting you look at the manual.
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Permalink Reply by Faith Johnson on -
Pride has often been an issue in my life . . . that and the "can I ever be good enough" struggle like living sacrifice was reading about in the lives of John Bunyan and Martin Luther. With the two of those working hand in hand, it becomes really easy to feel "I have to do it all on my own, and I WILL do it myself because I can!" So many things I held off at a distance . . . friendships, help with school work, learning to respect and submit to authority, fighting my inner battles so hard I was inadvertantly fighting God, too. I don't know how many times I have heard that phrase through the years of my life, "God helps those who help themselves." My childhood experiences endorsed it, but my relationship with Christ disputed it. Finally I came across something about it, either in a conversation, devotinal book, or a sermon that put it right for me.
I'll put it in the context of me, so that any of you who read this can spit it out if you find it doesn't sit right with you. The very start of my relationship with God began when I asked Him to forgive my sins and be my Lord and Master. I could not forgive my sins myself, I could not purchase my salvation myself, I cannot have a relationship with God that includes only myself. I had to ask God and He did it all. I fought the demons of my past, frequently losing and coming out of the battles bloody and discouraged. Why didn't God help me with this? I discovered after many long years that He didn't help because I didn't ask. Yes, God knew all about my struggles and pains, the footholds that afflicted me, and my terror of the enemies power . . . but if a relationship is built through open and full communication, team work through shared understanding and a common goal that is chosen and directed by the Captain, and I know that God has put in place restrictions upon Himself so that we may truly have free will, why do I think that He is just going to read my mind and DO for me what I didn't ask Him to do? He didn't come into my heart until I invited Him. He didn't help my grief until I told Him of if and ask Him to carry my burden. He didn't fight my battles with satan until I asked Him to. I can choose to ask God or not ask God, and He waits to be asked because He gave me free will. What about things like, do I take this job? Do I talk to this person about salvation? Do I ask God to open a parking space for me? I think we can ask God about every little detail, and He will be happy to enter in to every one. BUT I also think that God expects us to use wisely the skills and talents He has given us. He wants us to grow as Christians so He expects us to work through hard things and come out the other side a little stronger, wiser, victorious, or knocked down to a sweeter humility . . . depending on the trial. Some things He wants us to do on our own two legs, but that doesn't mean He doesn't want to be included in every step taken. I think . . . when we learn to include God in absolutely every iota of our lives . . . we will discover a great deal more light and growth has taken root in our hearts, our fruit will mulitply to God's glory, and the evidence of Christ in us will draw people to God like we have never scene before.
Why would God help those who help themselves? If they are helping themselves, aren't they telling God in their own way that they don't need Him?
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Permalink Reply by Deb on
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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.
After beginning in the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observed the law, or because you believe what you heard?
But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
It is all about Him Justin and He says your Father in heaven loves you dearly and longs to give you what a good Father has for you - not because of who you are - because of who He is.
God helps those who help themselves is a myth. Walking in the Spirit is grounded in Christ and the promise.
Do you need a job - ask Him. Do you need anything - ask Him.
He answers us in one of three ways - yes, no and later. Keep presenting yourself and your needs to Him because of Christ.
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