Summer Break: Breaking Away from Flimsy Religious Thinking
01 God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
Sunday Morning, June 1st, 2025

Partial truths can sound convincing, but often leave us with more questions than answers. This summer, we're taking a much-needed break from flimsy religious thinking and diving into the truth of God's word for ourselves.

This week, we’re calling to account the popular phrase “God helps those who help themselves.” It sounds logical and Biblical, but the Gospel tells the whole truth: that while we were still powerless, Christ died for us.

When something is easily damaged, broken, or lacks substance, we can call it flimsy.

Not just physical things. What about thoughts, opinions, mottos, philosophies or traditional sayings that we’ve grown up hearing:

Time heals all wounds
Nice guys finish last
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Words will never hurt me
Boys don’t cry
Follow your heart
Live your truth
Only God can judge me

Things we say when we’re not sure what else to say.

Flimsy religious ideas: A sprinkling of truth, or at best some truth that leaves out a lot of the story.

A 2017 Study from Barna: 52% of practicing Christians believe that the Bible has the words "God helps those who help themselves".

This religious idea has roots in Greek literature.
It shows up in the fables of Aesop around 5-600 years before Christ.

The phrase as we use it today, is attributed to Benjamin Franklin from the Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1757 “God helps them that help themselves”

Is Benjamin Franklin a source for trustworthy theology?
When asked about his faith, Franklin writes this about the divinity of Jesus: “I have … some doubts as to his divinity…having never studied it, i think it needless to busy myself with it now”

Why does "God helps those who help themselves." sound so reasonable? There is some truth to the statement.

Hebrew: Avad
Translated as Work, Service and Worship

We spend 1/3 of our lives working (avad includes paid and unpaid, slave and free). We can and should worship God through our work.

God performs the operation, we bring the cooperation.

Partial religious truths feel right and are convincing, but when applied broadly as the whole truth, they can create distortions in how we view our savior, ourselves and others.

I don't need to help them, they put themselves in that situation.

After all, God helps those who help themselves.

What does God tell us about His own character through His word:

What kind of worship and lifestyle is God looking for? What is a life that endeavors for more than outward religious formalities?

Have we done everything we can, first? Have we exhausted all options first? Is God leading me to step back from this person or am I just emotionally fed up?
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A note from Josh:
We only have so much time to work through a message on Sunday morning, so I can't always say it all.

I am 100% in support of healthy boundaries. Some people engage in manipulation with no intention of ever changing, and will drain the life out of you. We have to be wise in our dealings with those in chaos, but also full of compassion and mercy.

Ultimately we need to be able to stand before the Lord with clear conscience that we gave all He wanted us to give. If we only give when its convenient, we will fall short of seeing God change lives.

What about when we are the ones in the middle of a struggle? We can be prone to the flimsy religious thought of:

I’m struggling because I must not be doing enough.

Consider the greatest work done in your life - the salvation of your soul. What merits of yours made you worthy to receive it? None.

Its not about what you can do; its about your surrender.

Let’s not discredit what God is doing in our lives through struggles and hardships. We are not like rats trying to find our way out of a maze.

One of the greatest dangers of believing that “God only helps those who help themselves” is the tendency toward hyper -independence.

At the end of the day, the only person I can count on is me.

A greater risk of leaning into this thinking is someone with a history of abuse or trauma. Trust and healing is a long road for someone with trauma.

Jesus, your high priest, is with you on your road to healing. If we’re doing it right, His followers, will come alongside you and be a shelter in your storm.

Even outside of trauma: All I need are my wits and my work ethic

We prove just how powerless we are when we believe in ourselves above all, and rip control of our life from God’s hands.

Thanks for being with us this morning.
If you feel that the Lord has spoken to you about believing that God only helps those who help themselves, we would love to spend some time connecting with you in the days ahead. Feel free to come talk with us after the service.

You can send in a prayer request on our website:
https://www.TheChurchofJoy.org/prayer

The most important decision.
If you know you've never surrendered your life to Christ, and you feel that you're far from Jesus; we would like to talk to you about making a decision to follow Him. Come see us after the service or get in touch through our church website.