A 2005 survey shows 75 percent of Christians in the United States believe the Bible teaches “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s three-quarters of American Christians who believe this phrase is found in Scripture, a phrase that practically discounts the entire message of the Bible.
Anyone want to guess where the phrase actually comes from? Benjamin Franklin. The idea that God helps those who help themselves is an American one, but it isn’t a Biblical one. Yet, we’ve allowed this incorrect commentary on the nature of God to creep into our theology. It has gripped our belief system so much that it overtakes actual Scripture.
We would rather believe God helps the independent and the self-sufficient than to believe that Christ loves the helpless and calls us to feed the hungry. I’m not sure about your church, but I know at mine there are people who actually believe that the poor are poor by choice and that if they wanted to be rich, they would simply make money.
This philosophy is greed, not God. The God of the Bible is the savior of the helpless. He brought a group of helpless slaves out of captivity, rescued a prophet from a den of Lions, and gave His life for a world too lost in sin to find its way out. Jesus healed lepers and forgave prostitutes. These are not stories of the self-sufficient being aided by the Almighty.
But we’d rather help ourselves. We prefer to confuse our financial shrewdness with a blessing, and we call what we have earned through greed “God’s favor.” We’ve been helping ourselves for so long in this country, we don’t even remember that Jesus told us to look out for “the least of these.” Here’s a brief list of some of the things that have been going on while we’ve been helping ourselves.
- 39.5 percent of Americans now live below the poverty line, and this is according to the Census Bureau, statistics that were calculated before the recession.
- In 2004, 20 percent of requests for emergency food assistance went unmet. These are real people who were allowed to go hungry. How much food did we let spoil in 2004?
- 9.6 million people in the U.S. experience hunger. 3 million of these are children.
- In 2001, over 23 million Americans turned to food banks. 40 percent of these were working families.
- The majority of those below the poverty line are working families. Two out of three impoverished families include one or more workers.
- Almost half of all Americans will have experienced poverty at some point in their lives by the time they reach age 60.
Poverty is a real problem. There are no excuses. Jesus commands His followers to have compassion for those who are in need. They are not deadbeats. They are not lazy. They are people in need of Christ-like love. These are people who cannot help themselves, but whom God has called His people to help.
This is not a political issue. It is not a debate about whether or not government should provide aid. That is irrelevant if we call ourselves Christians. Regardless of what you believe about the role of government in fighting poverty, as a follower of Christ, you are commanded by the One who’s name you claim to do something about this problem.
The saying “God helps those who help themselves” is stupid and asinine, not to mention completely unbiblical.
I think the quote is true, God helps those that help themselves, its on a level of thought if u believe ur poor thats what u will attract into ur experience but if u believe ur wealthy that will be attracted the same way as being poor, the world we live in is an illusions it is all Matter, and matter is mold and shaped by Mind and Spirit…Know Thy Self and stop looking for Help on the outside of life but look for help and guidance on the inside
Law of Attraction is Gods Law not mans Law
Thanks for the great resource
Kamlle,
Who’s illusion do we live in?
Why do people assume it’s biblical just because the word God is in the Phrase? You know that they say when you assume……
Great article, but there are a few things that all of us see in the world, or personally know a relative, which tends to make our hearts hard. What I am talking about is people who do not work and will not work because they enjoy the welfare system. They drink like fish, pop pills, lie, cheat, and steal. They shove the care and attention of their kids onto the Grandparents because having the children affords the welfare lifestyle, but actually raisiing them, no, that gets in the way of the welfare lifestyle. So statistics like the ones above often do nothing for the hearts of many of us. If we get the right people into political office and demand change, then we can shake the tree hard enough to clean up some of this mess. Then, we’ll know how many out there truly need help and we can help truly.
Troubled,
The way I look at it, if someone asks me for help and truly needs it, but I don’t help them– it’s on me. If they ask for help and I help them, and it turns out they were using me or abusing the system– it’s on them. When it is hard to tell the difference, err on the side of meeting their needs. The burden to help those in need falls on the body of Christ, not politicians.
Troubled, I get exactly what you’re saying. And there are the people who are horribly addicted to some drug or alcohol, and our “help” in only making it worse. But how I look at it is, they need a different kind of help. A bag of groceries just isn’t going to cut it in a situation like that. Somebody, somewhere can help a person in this situation (a psychologist? some other sort of counselor?) THAT person needs to step up. But we need to do what we can at all times and not make excuses. We are responsible for our fellow human beings and if we’re not doing what we can, that’s on us.
Sue,
I couldn’t agree with you more.