~By: Danielle Sanders
Joshua 14:12 (NIV) – “Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me…the Anakites [are] there and their cities [are] large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as He said.”
“God helps those who help themselves.” Benjamin Franklin wrote these words in Poor Richard’s Almanac to inspire people to take initiative and do for themselves. I used to loathe this motto for the same reason I dismissed my own father’s words when he, as a believer, would say, “Yes, God will help you, but He also gave you a brain.” I thought I was being encouraged to trust in myself more than in God. Then, for some reason, when I learned about God’s grace, I started to think that I no longer had to work very hard to advance in life. I expected promotion and great wealth to simply overtake me because I am a believer. Not surprisingly, my expectations went unmet, but by the time I realized I needed to revisit my core beliefs, decades had passed me by.
One thing that finally became clear is that there’s a difference between working hard to earn right-standing with God and working hard to earn one’s way in life. You need not do the former because believing in Jesus puts you in right-standing with God. However, you must do the latter because you will get nowhere and accomplish nothing if you don’t, despite your right-standing with God. Somehow, I had conflated the two, but not anymore.
Historians say Benjamin Franklin was a deist. Among deism’s many non-biblical beliefs is the idea that God created the world but does not interact with it. God is seen as “the great clockmaker:” He made the clock, wound it up, and let it go, never to return. While I wholeheartedly disagree with deism, the analogy of the clockmaker got me thinking. What if God, through the finished work of the cross, is indeed like “the great clockmaker” who set the world aright for believers by giving them His own Spirit and placing them in His perfect Kingdom? He then “let it go” or let them go, rather, in the sense that He now expects believers to do for themselves using the supernatural power that is working within them (Ephesians 3:20).
If this is true, then it’s no longer about waiting on God to do something. Rather, it’s about using God’s power to accomplish God’s plan. Which brings me to another distinction I’ve come to understand: there is a difference between working hard and toiling. Hard work can actually be enjoyable and quite satisfying, whereas toiling never is. I think toiling is what happens when we try to accomplish things in our own strength instead of by the power (and wisdom) of God’s Spirit.
So how do we use God’s power within to accomplish things? I think it’s by believing the Word in our hearts, making declarations that align with what we believe, and then doing whatever things need to be done. To paraphrase Caleb’s words to Joshua quoted above, “Give me the mountain God promised me [40 years ago], and with His help, I’ll drive out the enemy like He said I would!” Caleb believed God’s promise, spoke it aloud in declaration, and then did it. I see the same pattern when David defeated Goliath.
God has already given us everything. Now it’s up to us to help ourselves to His provision by not only being fully convinced (at the heart level) about what God has said, but also declaring it for ourselves, from our own mouths, and then doing whatever is needed to accomplish the task. I believe this is how the Lord’s “super” is added to our “natural,” resulting in outcomes that far exceed our expectations.
What do you think? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.