Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Jim Peters in Hearing God - Jim's Daily D

Psalm 41

Written by King David – For the Choir Director

¹ A person who (helps) the poor to prosper is happy. The Lord will rescue him in the evil time[1]. ² The Lord will protect him and keep him alive. (That person)[2] will be called happy on earth.

Don’t give his life to his enemies.

³ The Lord will strengthen him on his sickbed. You turn him around from being sick to (being well)[3].

⁴ I said, “Lord, have mercy and heal me[4] (because) I have wronged you.”

⁵ My enemies say evil (like this about) me, “When he dies, his name will die (with him).” ⁶ When they[5] come to see me they tell lies. They gather up trouble inside[6] and (then) go outside and speak it. ⁷ All (those who) hate me whisper together against me. They think up evil (against me and say), ⁸ “A wicked curse[7] is poured down on him. When he lies down, he won’t get up again.”

⁹ My friend[8] who I trusted and ate food with has also promoted himself against me.

¹⁰ Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up (so that I can) repay them.

¹¹ This (is how) I know you are pleased with me – because my enemy doesn’t shout in victory over me. ¹² You hold up my innocence and stand me in your presence forever.

¹³ The Lord God of Israel will be praised forever and forever. It’s the truth! It’s the truth!

[1] “day/time” [2] “he” [3] “illness turn back all bed” [4] “soul/life” [5] “he” [6] “inner man” [7] “speech/saying” [8] “peace man peace”

Application

I hear “God blesses those who help themselves.” But to the contrary, God blesses those who help the poor. It’s my duty to help those in need and as a consequence I will be blessed. I will enjoy God’s protection because of it and enjoy true happiness. Even my healing will come as a result of helping the poor. Sometime I feel like I am the poor, but this is a lie of the enemy. I’ve seen enough to know that there are billions of people worse off than me and what I call need they would call luxury.

I must recognise that God is behind all healing and I also need to keep short accounts with him because all of my sin is committed against him, whether that’s what I intended or not.

Some may try to come against me and may try all sorts of things to bring me down, but God is my rescuer and he will have mercy on me, if I follow him. One way to know that God is pleased with me is that, even though my enemies threaten me, they are not shouting victory over me and they won’t either.

God upholds my innocence and I stand in his presence forever. Eternity isn’t some new concept of the New Testament. I stand with God forever and ever and he will be praised for all eternity, too.

Prayer

Father, I need your peace and your rest, your healing and your refreshing. There’s no one else who can meet my needs… only you and you alone.

You are certainly amazing. Your creation is more than I can understand. You are creator of all and yet you created me and want to live in me and know me personally. You are interested in every personal detail of my life. You long to help me and look for ways to bless me. You protect me from my enemies and I ask you to bring your power on me and equip me for what you want me to do.

Thank you for your Spirit of Power, love and self control. Fill me to overflowing.

IJN Amen

Jim Peters

Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

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