It does not matter what kind of help you are talking about. Whether physical, emotional, or financial, any help you give others can only come from a position of strength.
If someone is suffering financially, the only people who can help them are people who hold a position of financial strength. The financially weak cannot help other financially weak individuals. Yet those same people, the greedy poor, will disparage those who have wealth on this earth. They will talk trash about the only people who can help them fix their current situation.
Also, emotional help can only come from a position of emotional strength. You cannot help someone who is suffering emotionally if you are also an emotional wreck. Helping one another typically does not happen in a lateral fashion, with two people on an even playing field helping one another out. Help only comes from a position of strength.
Lastly, physical help can only come from a position of physical strength. If someone is hanging off of a ledge, you cannot help them if you are also hanging off the same ledge. The only people who can help them are people who are above the ledge, standing on solid ground.
If help can only come from a position of strength, why do we in religion disparage strength so much?
We glorify weakness and label strength as “arrogant”. Those who are strong enough to stand on their own two feet are ridiculed for their self-reliance.
The issue is that so many people who worship at the altar of weakness do not understand that it is our job as people to develop our own strength, as best we can. If we are to meet God halfway, it requires work on our part. We are charged with doing everything we can to the best of our ability and let God take care of the rest. But the weak want God to do everything for them. They do not want to do any work on themselves or their lives. They expect God to do everything while they sit back sipping mango juice on the beach. This lazy mental attitude is the reason that so few Christians hold positions of strength in their daily lives. Most are emotionally, physically, and financially destitute and proud to be so. This is not who we should model ourselves after.
If you want results in your life, you have to develop strength of your own.
You cannot always rely on others because they will not always be there to support you. You need to develop the internal strength to rely on yourself and no one else. Then once you have maximally developed your own strength, you allow God to handle the rest. But never expect God to lift your entire burden for you, He will not do it. That would rob you of the chance to develop your own strength. God will help you along the way, but it is your responsibility to develop your own strength to help yourself first, and others second. Because you cannot help others until you are in a position of strength.
