Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

Gary: Now, Religion in the News…. This week’s item is from World Magazine, August 2000: “ The Bible teaches that ‘God helps those who help themselves’ was a statement in a survey by pollster George Barna on American religious beliefs. Seventy-five percent of Americans, including more than 40 percent of born-again Christians, agreed with the unbiblical statement, which Mr. Barna said, ‘exposes Americans’ belief that God is merely our assistant, not our foundation.’”

Tom: Dave, this is an interesting survey, or statement on this survey. It is to me, especially because I remember, as somebody who was being witnessed to before I came to know the Lord, I liked to get into debates, even if I didn’t know what I was talking about, and when someone said, “Well, the Bible says this…” I figured, I’m going to quote him the Bible as well. So, the verse that I came up with was, “God helps those who help themselves.” That was my Bible verse.

So, they challenged me. They said, “Wait! That’s not in the Bible.”

I said, “Yes, it is. I know that’s in the Bible.” (I mean, I knew I’d heard it somewhere.)

Dave: Right.

Tom: So, I spent a long time, not looking in the Bible, just trying to figure out different ways that I could get to…you know, famous quotations of this guy and that guy. But I did find it. And I found it in Poor Richard’s Alamanac.  This is the gospel, in a sense, according to Benjamin Franklin. But it’s not in the Bible.

Dave: Yeah, well, it wouldn’t be in the Bible. Let’s just analyze it for a moment. “God helps those who help themselves,” but as Barna said, “It sounds like He’s our helper rather than our foundation.”

“Those who help themselves.” In other words, I have in mind some goal, and instead of just asking God to do it all for me, I’ve got to put out some energy. Nothing about God’s will. Nothing about what God may have in mind. But I’m running the show. And God is perfectly willing to come alongside and help me, but He just wants me to do a little of the work too. But in the final analysis, what I want is going to happen. That’s what this says: “God helps those who help themselves.”

But God is so great beyond our comprehension. This is the God who created the universe out of nothing! Who always is—“always has been” isn’t even the way to say it—He always is. And to think that I want my puny will to be blessed by Him? So, Jesus said, “You haven’t even begun to pray until you say, ‘Not my will but Thine be done.’” And that’s just the opposite of what he was saying.

Tom: Dave, this says 75 percent of Americans—and then it breaks it down to 40 percent of born-again Christians. But this is kind of our American heritage. I mentioned Benjamin Franklin. I could also take Thomas Jefferson. Many of our founding fathers were Deists, and they believed that, “Hey, God set it all like a clock. He wound it up and set it on its course, and now it’s our job to take care of everything.” So, God doesn’t get involved in our lives. We have to really do it ourselves.

Well, do you think the 75 percent—is this kind of our…is this the flesh or a natural attitude? Or is it part of our heritage? We love—go into any bookstore—we love self-help books. This is our bent, sort of.

Dave: Well, let’s take the other side of the coin for a moment, Tom. There is some truth to that—something worthwhile in it. In other words, I shouldn’t be lazy.
“God, get me a job,” but I’m not going to go out and look for one. I’m not going to lift a finger to do anything. I don’t think God is going to honor that either!

So, there is some commonsense wisdom in this. On the other hand, it’s not what I’m trying to do. I should say, “Lord, would you guide me? First of all, what job do you want me to have? Where do you want me to work? Where do you want me to live? What do you want me to do?”

Paul puts it like this in Colossians chapter one. He says, toward the end of the chapter, I think it’s verse 29 or somewhere, it says—he’s talking about God’s purpose and His plan, and he says, “Whereunto I labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.”

Or you go to Philippians 3, where he says, “Work out your own salvation.” That’s not working for salvation, but the salvation that He has given us, now we’re to work it out in our lives. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good will.”

So, there must be a cooperation between me and God. I’m not just going to sit down in a chair and God is going to feed me, do everything. I must be…well, you remember the servant of Abraham, who went out to find a bride for Isaac. He said, “I, being in the way, the Lord led me.” In other words, he started putting one foot in front of another, and he headed out to where he was supposed to go, and then he trusted God.

Tom: It’s hard to guide somebody standing still!

Dave: That’s right.

Tom: There’s got to be a little movement there.

Dave: Right. So there is some little wisdom in there. We’ll give Ben Franklin credit for that, but the whole purpose should be, of our lives, to know God’s will—to know Him and know His will, and then follow…Jesus said, “Follow Me.” That doesn’t mean He’s going to carry us on a stretcher. We’re going to have to put some effort into it as well. But we want Him to be the leader, not our plan to be the one that then He has to bless.

Tom: Now, Dave, this goes back to what we mentioned earlier in our first segment. We are going to go through trials and tribulations. These are for our growth, for our development, for our encouragement to trust and lean upon Him. Forty percent of born-again Christians—how they can…unless they really didn’t understand the question, unless they…

Dave: See, the point is, Tom, as I recall the quotation, the Bible teaches—now, it wasn’t that this was “a good idea,” you know, but this is what the Bible teaches. Obviously a lot of born-again Christians do not know the Bible, because they never read that in there.

Tom: Right.