Srila Prabhupada explains - "God helps those who help themselves"

Devotee - "Prabhupāda, it is written in the Bhagavad-gītā that we just read from, about how you think that Kṛṣṇa will provide for us. And also further on in the Gītā it is said that God helps those who help themselves".

Srila Prabhupāda - "Yes".

Devotee - "Now, how do we determine what we should...?"

Srila Prabhupāda - "Helping yourself means you put yourself under Kṛṣṇa; that is helping yourself. And if you think, "Oh I can protect myself," then you are not helping yourself. Just like this finger, so long it is healthy, working, if there is some trouble, I can spend thousands of dollars for this. 

But if this finger is cut off from my body, if you trample down with your feet this finger, I don't care for it. 

Similarly, to help oneself means to put oneself in the proper position, as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. That is real helping. Otherwise how you can help? The finger can help itself by putting itself in the proper position of the hand and work for the whole body. That is proper position. 

If the finger thinks that, "I shall remain separated from this body and help myself," it will die. So as soon as you think, that "I shall live independently without caring for Kṛṣṇa," that is my death, and as soon as I engage myself as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, that is my life.

So helping oneself means to know one's position and work in that way. That is helping. 

Without knowing what is his position, how one can help oneself? It is not possible". (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 6.1, Los Angeles February 13, 1969)

After reading the above, still one should NOT artificially immate the faith a pure devotee has in Krishna. 

Often helping one's self means reading and following the great devotees the best one can but NOT just foolishly sit back and pray to Krishna to fix your broken leg when you can help yourself by getting medical help to put your leg in a cast.

And also NOT just sit back and pray for protection while driving a car knowing you MUST "help yourself and drive the car the best way you can" instead of foolishly praying for Krishna to drive the car for you.

I know some devotees on Sankirtan were in a hurry to distribute Books and drove quickly to places overtaking cars singing Narsingadeva prayers, but still they were killed in a head on collision and killing others too because of this ignorant fanaticism.

Another example of ignorant faith is only chanting Hare Krishna in the middle of a World wide pandemic like Covid-19 that has so far killed 5 million people in 18 months and think Krishna will protect you, NO, helping yourself in this case means getting vaccinated, wear a mask, avoid big religious festivals and crowds.

Many devotees just depended on chanting Hare Krishna thinking Krishna will protect them, many never even wore masks or practiced social distancing thinking Krishna devotees are above all that.

Sadly because of this ignorance many devotees died including Gurus and sannyāsis because they did not really understand what "God helps those who helps themselves" means.

Often Prabhupāda called in medical help when sick like when he had a seriously infected finger.

He did NOT just sit back and only chant Hare Krishna, he helped himself by calling in a doctor to give him penicillin that did eventually heal his finger.

This is the proper understanding of "God helps those who helps themselves"

Actually the saying "God helps those who helps themselves" depends on one's level of faith.

For example, in the early 1970s one fanatical Temple President forced all the devotees to eat the left over prasadam from the Sunday feast saying prasadam can never be contaminated.

Eventually some devotees got sick with hepatitis and our GBC stopped this fanaticism.

He explained to the devotees, yes prasadam cannot be contaminated however, most devotees are NOT on that level of realization, so we CANNOT immitate that level of faith by forcing devotees to follow such nonsense. 

So in this regards this painting must be properly understood and not imitated.