I heard a great version of the old story about God helping those that help themselves. It was on the podcast "A Pagan Heart in Maine" (which is an excellent podcast) and the basic story went like this: A man was trapped in his house with a flood coming. Someone drove buy and offered to drive him to safety, and said no, that his God would save him. The waters rise and he moves to the second floor. A boat comes buy and they offer to save him but he again declines saying that his God will save him. The waters rise more and he is on his roof and a helicopter comes by and offer to save him. Of course, he turns down the offer saying that his God will save him. So of course he drowns. He  goes to heaven and asks God, "Hey, why didn't you save me?" God replies "Gee, I sent you a car, a boat and a helicopter - what more do you want of me?"

The Gods will answer reasonable requests - I do believe this - but the answer may not be what you expect and you have to look for it. Most of our Gods and Goddesses have some sense of humor and it may not be the same as ours! Even if they don't play tricks on us, their idea of how to help us may be very different than ours. We are not talking about humans - we are talking about the divine - and it is presumptuous of us to assume we know how they think. So yes, maybe you did receive divine intervention - it just wasn't what you expected. Look for it, be open to it, be willing to work with what you receive even if it wasn't quite what you asked for.

And if you are going to receive divine intervention, you also need to do your part. Tapping into the primal power of the divine does not mean snapping your fingers and making outlandish things happen. This is not Charmed or I Dream of Jeannie. You are asking a God or Goddess to change the course of nature, and do so in a way that may be contrary to what others are hoping and praying and casting spells for. It's pretty egotistical to think that you can overcome all of that pressure to make unlikely events occur through divine intervention.  But you have every reason to expect the Gods to help give you a push down the path you are already on...

There is also the old story of the devout person who kept asking God to help him win the lottery. Finally, as he is praying, he hears a great voice from above saying, "Help me out here - at least buy a lottery ticket."

To paraphrase slightly an old Christian saying: "The Gods help those who help themselves." It's like I constantly tell my kids when they ask me to do something for them - I reply that yes, I'll help them to do it themselves, but I won't  do it for them. And I'm not even a God!

So the challenge I give myself each day is to try to remember to ask my Gods for something reasonable, to do my part to reach my goals, and be willing to recognize and appreciate divine intervention even if it's not quite what I expected.