The greatest thing that God could have provided for mankind is the Bible, the Word of God, because it is literally God revealing Himself and communicating with humanity.
The Scriptures contain insight into everything that has to do with our lives.
Biblical Christianity teaches that the Bible was inspired and authored by the Holy Spirit using men and women.
(Hebrews 4:12 NKJV) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All that being said, there are many things that people who follow Jesus, go to church and even claim to believe the Bible who believe things that are completely unbiblical. This happens because some things are said that sound good, spiritual and biblical and they gain traction because people actually believe they are in the Bible.
In the world, this is called Fake News!
Two extremes in how Christians deal with life:
✓ Those who do nothing.
They bounce through life just letting life happen to them. There is the belief that if it is God’s will for my life, that it will just happen.
✓ Those who make their own plans and then ask God to bless them.
God helps those who help themselves!
This phrase is not found in the Bible.
It was brought into our modern culture in 1736 by Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard’s Almanac.
While this may sound superficially like the kind of proverb you might hear from a committed Christian, Franklin was a deist. He didn’t believe in a personal God who is actively involved in the affairs of people, but rather in a God who set the world in motion but stands at a distance while we fend for ourselves.
On the surface this statement sounds good but it is actually anti-Gospel. It is based on the concept of self-reliance and self-righteousness.
It comes from the belief that if you try harder and do better, then God will step in and help you in some way.
(Proverbs 28:26 NIV) Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.
(Psalms 72:12-14 NKJV) For He will deliver the needy when he cries, The poor also, and him who has no helper. (13) He will spare the poor and needy, And will save the souls of the needy. (14) He will redeem their life from oppression and violence; And precious shall be their blood in His sight.
(Isaiah 25:4 NLT) But You are a tower of refuge to the poor, O LORD, a tower of refuge to the needy in distress. You are a refuge from the storm and a shelter from the heat…
(Romans 5:6-8 NLT) When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. (7) Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. (8) But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
(Ephesians 2:8-10 MSG) Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! (9) We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! (10) No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
The Bible DOES teach us that there is a part that God plays in our lives and a part that we play in our lives.
What exactly is our part?
- Believe God’s Word.
We should find out what God has blessed or is blessing and get over there under that instead of trying to get God to bless our plans.
(2 Chronicles 20:20 NKJV) (20) So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”
(Romans 10:17 NKJV) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- Pray and speak God’s Word.
(Romans 10:8-10 NKJV) But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): (9) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
(Mark 11:23-24 NKJV) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. (24) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
- Obey Him and act like the Bible is true.
Believe that God will do what He says He will do.
(James 2:15-17 AMP) If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day, (16) And one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do? (17) So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
Does God help those who help themselves?
Charles Spurgeon said: “God helps those who cannot help themselves.”
The truth is, God helps those who place their trust and confidence in Him and believe for Him to help them.