Who Does God Help?

“God helps those who help themselves!” my husband, Herb, told me all the time. I tried to explain that God wants us to ask for help in prayer. “So, if I lie around all day and pray, God will do it for me? No. I have to do it. God helps those who help themselves!” His view could not be changed.

I was Herb’s caregiver in between the weeks or months that he was hospitalized for anxiety and depression. After years of this, I had so little energy I didn’t even want to get out of bed. Every day was like dragging my body through clay mud! But even though I was so tired, at night I couldn’t sleep; my thoughts wouldn’t stop racing in circles. It was a vicious cycle. I still prayed, but I began to wonder if it was indeed true, as Herb insisted, that if I couldn’t help myself, God would leave me in my misery.

Almost at the end of my rope, I went to my pastor with a question: “Where in the Bible does it say that God helps those who help themselves?” He said it originated from an English theorist and that the saying was later made famous by Benjamin Franklin. That was the answer that changed everything! I asked for help, and God gave it.