Edgardo Avila – leading the Spanish-speaking church
God helps those who help themselves, right?
Many Americans think that they can find this verse in the Bible, but search all they want and it is nowhere to be found.
Abram and Sarai’s dilemma
The pastor of our Spanish church, Edgardo Avila spoke on Genesis 16 on Sunday. This passage describes how Abram and Sarai began to doubt whether God would come through and give them their promised child, a son, an heir. Sarai decided to give Abram her servant, Hagar as his wife. Abram did take her as his wife, and Hagar conceived and a whole lot of problems were born with her son.
Abram and Sarai decided instead of trusting God, instead of waiting on the Lord that they would take things into their own hands. You could say they believed that God helps those who help themselves.
This message really hit me. In some areas of my life I’m tempted to rush ahead, instead of trusting God. In a sense, I feel like I have to help God make it happen. It’s so good that God is full of mercy and grace, because he still used Abraham and Sarah in spite of their misstep. He is also amazingly graceful to us.
Choose God
When you come to a fork in the road, and you have to decide whether to trust yourself, or trust God, choose God. He is all-knowing and he is abundantly loving. Choose him every time, no matter how difficult it may seem. You will never go wrong if you choose to trust in the Lord and his faithfulness. All his promises are yes, in Christ Jesus!
In His Grip, Dave
Beyond Borders 
While I certainly don’t think it’s bad to try to do things yourself (under the cover of God’s will) and is what you should do, I think a more true phrase that exemplifies God would be:
God helps those who can’t help themselves.
None of us can help ourselves in any useful, meaningful way without God’s help. He’s the God of the helpless, the God of all of us. What a comfort!!
janet
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That’s a good way to put it – God definitely helps the helpless. Unfortunately, too many don’t realize that they are helpless and in need of God’s grace.
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That’s our job! 🙂
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There are so many “sayings” that sound like they come from Scripture but they don’t. It is one of the reasons why it is so important for us to read the Word for ourselves so we can know what it says and what it doesn’t.
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yes – I agree it’s important to read and study the Bible.
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Thank you, Pastor Dave. There are always situations where this comes into play in my life, and the ‘natural’ thing to do is to try to fix it, take care of it. Praying to be ‘unnatural’ and let God do as He said He would do. God bless you and yours!
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Thanks – we are all in process, and God is doing a good work in making us more like Christ.
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Thank you for sharing, and God bless you, Dave.
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Thank you for the encouragement!
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