Does God Really Help Those Who Help Themselves?
About a year ago, I received a reply to one of my newsletters from my other website, Healing Harvest Homestead. Well, it was a diatribe, actually.
I could feel the hurt and pain and (legitimate) anger emanating off the page of this hurting woman's letter to me. I guess I had deeply offended her by discussing my faith in God.
Anyhow, she asked me why I had to talk about God. Why couldn't I just stick with homesteading topics? I didn't write about this for several weeks because it hurt me so bad---that she had to experience what she did, and that she was blaming God. I've been thinking about this for awhile.
She explained that she had been terribly hurt as a young child (and reading her story, I wept long and hard tears for her and for every child who is abused in any way).
I have, myself, seen the evil perpetrated on small children when I was a school teacher for decades of my life. I won't go into the horrors some of them endured, but really, some of their cases were heart-breaking. In fact, I had and still have once in awhile, nightmares and flashbacks about some of their experiences.
And I can completely see how a person would want to turn away from a God who we think is supposed to protect us. Who we think is supposed to be there for us. Who we think is supposed to help us, especially if we can help ourselves. Right?
But this is where human misunderstanding about God and our human experience comes into play.
And what about that old saying, "God helps those who help themselves” anyway?
Doesn't this saying imply that as adults who get to make our own decisions, if we only DO the right things, God will be there every step of the way, to help us?
Well, this is not Biblical truth. In either case.
In fact, that saying actually originated with Aesop and a reference to the Greek Gods, and was further spoken of by Ben Franklin a couple of centuries ago. But what the Bible says is quite different.
He IS absolutely there for us, but not in the way(s) we think or often want. His ways are His own, and we are simply to do what we are asked, live a life that is as positive and joyful as we can, even through times (even extreme times) of difficulty, pain, and hardship. For small children, this responsibility falls on the parents who are supposed to protect that child.
We all have bad things that have happened in our lives TO us, and many of us (raising hand) have had bad things happen because of our (my) own stupid choices at certain times in my life. Choices I personally made because I was playing the "blame game."
The fact is, bad things and events are part of our human existence because we have free will (and so does everyone else). But as we are able to make our own decisions, we get to decide how we are going to react, who we are going to listen to, and what we are going to believe.
Here is a video link that explains what I'm trying to say WAY better than my fumbling ways can, and I hope you'll take a quick look. It's one I'm saving to watch a few more times, and you can get this week's verse there, too. It's from Titus. Lies About God: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves. This is a REALLY good, short video, no matter what you believe. It helps explain why bad things happen.
You see, God helps those of us who can't help themselves. He helps the helpless. This is why Jesus died on the cross for you and me! God gave His only son so that we, helpless in our sin, could be saved by grace.
We just have to ask for the help!
And we need to realize the help we get may not be the help we want or think we need. That's important. But how we look at our lives has everything to do with how well we can live, even if (though) we've experienced bad things.
At any rate, you are His special child, even with your experiences, whatever they are, behind you. I've done some really horrible and sinful things in my time, AND I've had others do some really horrific things to me too. Those horrible things we do or say to others, or are done or said to us are on a variety of scales of awfulness.... but guess what?
It's in the past.
It's a comfort and a joy to remember this and to know that if we turn our thinking around, the right way, we can emerge from these bad times a victor, AN OVERCOMER.
If you are angry about things in the past (and I KNOW how hard some of us have had it....I've been in places myself I hope never, ever to return to and that I've had to work REALLY hard to not be angry about anymore), I hope you will actively find peace and joy and gratitude for what is NOW, even if it's just the sun shining on your face---- Go there.
Go to that place of gratitude, hope, joy, and the word instead of the past of anger, hate, horror, and trying times.
Here are some verses for this week!
“For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” Titus 2:11-13
and here are a couple verses about where our trust should lie:
“Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord…” Jeremiah 17:5
and another talking about where our trust should be:
“An arrogant man stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” Proverbs 28:25, 26
Basically, we can’t trust our own thinking. We MUST put our trust in God, the most high, even when things in our life are rough.
Hugs to you, and Hope and Light,
Have an amazing and beautiful day,
Heidi