(Since the number seven symbolizes completion in the Bible, this seventh entry will complete our summer series.)
Proverb: "God helps those who help themselves"
This common saying is definitely NOT one of the Biblical proverbs. The phrase was popularized by Benjamin Franklin in 1757 in Poor Richard's Almanac.
While Scripture encourages us to discern and then act upon our discernment of what we believe what God is calling us to in any given situation (I think especially of Judith taking action to defeat Holofernes), this saying implies that God might NOT help those who don't or can't help themselves! In this sense Ben Franklin's proverb is misleading; Scripture insists that God does help those who cannot, for many reasons, help themselves. That's one reason we engage in petitionary prayer.
This question is at the heart of Christian faith. The New Testament affirms beyond question that God helped all humankind by coming to us in the person Jesus of Nazareth
precisely because we could not help ourselves. As St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans:
"For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly." (New American Bible, Romans 5:6)
