Have you ever heard the old adage, “God helps him who helps himself?” In other words, “You get to work doing the heavy lifting, and God will help you out along the way.” This may surprise you, but that’s not what we see in the Bible. God is in the business of helping those who cannot help themselves. Just as He did with Abraham, God meets every man at their point of need, and if we’ll let Him, He will take us from our lack to life abundantly.
I know, there’s a little twinge of pride that wants to believe that we don’t need anything from anyone. However, it’s our need that brings us to Christ. If we deny that we have a need, we deny the need for a Savior. At some point, we agreed with two facts. First, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 1 Secondly, “the wages of sin is death.”2 Our sin sentenced us to die – so, our need is life.
That’s where God met each one of us. He exchanged the death we were due for the gift of eternal life. “… the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”2 We were all in a situation from which we couldn’t help ourselves. The love and mercy of God, provided the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. I know, if you’re already a Christian, you know that. (If you’re not, check out my blog “Road to Life.”)
We came to God, because of our need. Yet, once were saved, isn’t there something in that saying, “God helps him, who helps himself,” that rings true? Why is it that we feel we need to do all the heavy lifting? We hope that if we’re really doing everything right, God might help us out?
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Yet, we often get stuck in a “works” mentality. We work, work, work and hide our areas of lack. Do we forget about the love and mercy that motivated Jesus to lay down His life? It doesn’t end once we’ve proclaimed that we believe.
I love Paul’s words to the Romans. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”3 What beauty. If He didn’t spare Christ, what is He going to spare now? God wants us to bring Him the areas that are lacking. He wants us to bring Him our needs. It honors Him. Our trust in His character, faithfulness, and ability to meet our needs honors Him.
Overcoming Preconceived Notions
Often times, our view of God is skewed by our relationships on earth. We let our experiences and the expectations from others in our lives affect how we relate to God. We have this notion that we need to come to God all cleaned up and having it all together. In our earthly relationships, we may feel inhibited from allowing others to see our struggles.
Sometimes it’s past experiences with parents, spouses, or friends when we delivered the “bad news” of things not going exactly as planned – a bad grade in school, a failed job interview, an unplanned pregnancy, or a broken marriage. Sometimes the expectations of others have been so high that we shrink back from sharing, for fear of the response. That’s not our heavenly Father. He is eager and waiting to meet our need. No matter the surrounding circumstances.
Extravagant Love
We see the extravagant love of the Father in the parable of the prodigal son. As he is returning home, it says, “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”4 I love that! When he was still a great way off! The Father was watching and waiting.
Remember the surrounding circumstances. The son asked for his inheritance, took it and left. It says the father divided to them his livelihood.5 An inheritance goes to the children after the father dies. The father, while still living, divided to them his livelihood. The son treated the father as if he was already dead! He was essentially saying, I can’t wait till you die to get away from you. I want my portion now, so I can get as far away from you as possible.
Yet, when the son was still a great way off, his father saw him. He was watching and waiting. Not to come out with scorn and derision, but he instead had compassion on him and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son had squandered everything. His motivation to return was his own hunger and concern that he would perish.6 The father takes no consideration of the circumstance; He meets him at his point of need.
Counting on His Character
Maybe you’re like me, and can’t help but wonder: how could the son return knowing what he had done? He acknowledged that he had sinned and didn’t even feel worthy to be called a son.7 Yet, in the midst of being a hungry and poorly treated servant, he had a moment of clarity, “he came to himself.” He remembered that all his father’s hired servants had bread enough to spare. The man to whom he had joined himself, didn’t give him anything. The slop that he fed the swine looked good.8 In that moment, he remembered the goodness of the father.
Although his concern for himself was his motivating factor, it was the goodness of the father that allowed him to return. In spite of all his own failures, he knew his father. He had lived with him his entire life. He knew the love, mercy, and compassion of his father. While his sin loomed so large that he couldn’t comprehend being anything more than a servant, he knew he could depend on the character of his father.
The parable goes on to say that the father celebrates, kills the fatted calf and gives him a robe, a ring, and sandals9 – signs of sonship. The older son in the parable responds as man would. He is angry and refuses to celebrate. He rehearses the things the brother has done wrong.10 Looking at the word for prodigal in the Greek, we could safely assume that the older son wasn’t wrong. By worldly standards, most would react as the older son did. Even if we forgave him, we would be hard pressed to give him back his former position as if nothing had happened.
It’s hard for us to grasp it, but what we see displayed in this parable is the extravagant love and compassion of our Father. He no doubt knew and had heard, just as the older son had, of the prodigal living. Despite the son’s horrible treatment of the father, despite him having squandered everything, despite the stench of pigs, and no doubt a tattered appearance, the father fell on his neck and kissed him.
Father Based Value
It’s the same with us, even if our sin looms largely in our minds, we can count on the character of our Father. Even if we don’t see ourselves as anything more than a servant, the father counts us worthy, not because of our behavior, but because of the value that He places on us. Let’s look at the context of this parable. It says that the sinners and tax collectors drew near to Jesus to hear him, and the religious people of the day complained about it. They said, “He receives sinners and eats with them.” So the audience is sinners and tax collectors and the judgmental religious people of the day.
Jesus then tells three parables. One of a lost sheep being one out of a hundred. One of a lost coin being one out of ten. One of a lost son being one out of two. We see the increasing value of each lost item. Each item found is rejoiced over. He then paints a picture of a son that utterly rejects the father, squanders everything, lives a life lacking all moral restraint, comes back in shambles – motivated by his own need. The father is watching and waiting, throws a party and restores the son fully! Not because of the behavior of the son. It’s because of the value that he places on the son. Jesus is making it clear to the sinners, tax collectors and religious people of the day that are listening, that these are His Father’s sons and daughters and they are of great value to the Father!
We must remember that we are the sons and daughters of God. When we are afar off, He is watching and waiting. We can bring our needs to Him, because He is a good and loving heavenly Father – quick to forgive and restore. He requires nothing more than for us to come in faith, believing He is able and willing to meet us at our point of need.
(1) Romans 3:23 (2) Romans 6:23 (3) Romans 8:32 (4) Luke 15:20 (5) Luke 15:12 (6) Luke 15:17 (7) Luke 15:18,19 (8) Luke 15:16 (9) Luke 15:22,23 (10) Luke 15:28,29