Isaiah 64
You can finish that sentence, right? God helps those who help themselves. But where did we ever get that idea? Certainly not from Isaiah 64. Here, he says quite the opposite: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” (vs 4)
God helps those who wait for Him.
Photo © Unsplash/Kai Pilger
Okay, God will also help those who help themselves. I mean, He’s in the “helping us business” as much as possible. He doesn’t stomp off and leave us alone if we run ahead of Him. It just may mean that He has to scrap His original plan in favor of something else. He’d much rather have us wait on Him, because His plans will bring us the greatest happiness.
I grew up listening to the story of how my parents “got together,” and it’s really not an understatement to say that it was a miracle! My father was a very popular high school teacher with no shortage of prospective dates, and my mother—who was enamored with him from the first moment she laid eyes on him—knew there was no chance of her being “the one.”
So, she did the only things she could do. She prayed, and she waited. And she waited. And one day, she walked down the aisle and became Mrs. Ken Wilson, having seen that God does indeed act on behalf of those who wait for Him.
Photo © Unsplash/Jeremy Perkins
We can’t begin to imagine the marvelous things God has in store for us. Blessed are those who resist the urge to take matters into their own hands and, instead, wait patiently on the Lord. For He helps those best who don’t help themselves!