Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong. Joshua 17:17-18

While living in active opioid addiction, I knew I was in the wrong. I believed in God, and I believed that he wanted me to live in recovery. I also believed that he would help me find recovery. Divine assistance sounded like a wonderful thing, since I didn’t really want to have to change my life, go to treatment, or make any sacrifice to get where God wanted me to go. So, I prayed, asking him to miraculously remove my desire for pills. Take away the self-destructive appetite and then I’ll change my behavior. I didn’t get that instant miracle, even though I prayed that prayer a thousand times. It was only in losing everything, that I finally went to God, telling him I’d do whatever it took to follow him to recovery. That was a transformative moment in my life – when I finally became willing to do whatever God asked – as he began to work in me.

So, does God only help those who help themselves? Today’s passage sheds some light on this question. In the story, as God directed Joshua to divide up the land of Canaan among Israel’s 12 tribes, those in the tribe of Joseph wanted more than their one allotment. They were apparently more populous than the other tribes and so, they felt they deserved more and went to Joshua, pleading their case. Joshua agreed, but he didn’t just hand land over to them. Rather, he pointed them in a specific direction, saying, Here is your additional land. Now go conquer it. I imagine that those in the tribe of Joseph hoped that Joshua would just instantly give them some available unpopulated land, but rather, he expressed his will and asked them to execute it, promising divine assistance, because this was also God’s will.

The phrase – God helps those who help themselves – isn’t actually in the Bible and it isn’t completely biblical as it implies that God gets on board with our plans for self-improvement. From my own experience, I’d offer an amended statement – God provides divine assistance to those who obey him. In my addiction, I discovered that my prayer for God to do all the work was simply an excuse for me to do nothing. God though, desired that I learned follow him. And so, I came to understand that one act of obedience was more powerful than a thousand prayers. God did work miraculously in my life, but only after I became willing to do whatever he asked.