"God helps those who help themselves."

[Epistemes]

“God helps them who help themselves,” is a statement attributed to Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Is there any solid basis for this, though?

 

[MarcoPolo]

If a person “helps himself” by praying and submitting to God, then yes. If a person “helps himself” by taking 10 extra scoops of mashed potatoes, then I’m not sure.

 

[Jesus_N_Cherie]

I think that a point should also be made here. God also helps those who cannot (for whatever reason) help themselves.

If one is not trying because of slothfullness, remember that this is one of the deadly sins.

There are, however, examples of God helping those who did nothing to merit the outcome of something wonderful. As in, a person was in a bad job, but refused to quit or look diligently for a better position somewhere else for fear of losing the job she had and then being in a worse situation.

God allowed her to be fired for completely unjust reasons…and quickly led her to better employment.

She did nothing, but He still helped her.

 

[Church_Militant]

“God helps them who help themselves,” is a statement attributed to Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Is there any solid basis for this, though?

I don’t know about Ben Franklin but it dates a bit farther back than that and it is NOT in the Bible.

You’ll find that it is the moral of Aesop’s Fable… **Hercules and the Wagoner
**
And the actual statement is, "The gods help them that help themselves"