And you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest; you saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. You counted the buildings in Jerusalem & tore down houses to strengthen the wall. You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.
Isaiah 22:8-11
The leaders of Judah did all that they could to prepare for war, but did not do the one thing they should. They got weapons, checked the walls & stored up water, but all their work was pointless because they never asked God for help. Each of the steps they took were important & even wise, but they should have started by asking God to guide their work.
In Isaiah 20:2 we read:
At that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body & the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped & barefoot.
Here God asks of Isaiah something that you really wouldn't expect (& really hope he doesn't ask of you 😝). Anyway, the point being that we may have ideas of how & in what order things should take place, but we really don’t know or understand what God is trying to teach us or others in the process. God may ask us to do things or take steps in the process that we don't understand, but we must obey God in complete faith.
We need to seek God first. He will either give us peace & confidence to move in the direction that we planned (or expected) for it to go or he will direct us down another path because he wants to teach us (or someone else) something along the way.
As hard as it is to let go of our own ideas & plans; when we do, we have the opportunity to see God at work & his glory lifted up.
1 comment:
It is always foolish to leave God out of the equation. It's the most likely to happen when we're in.our element and confident in our own abilities, forgetting we got them from Him in the first place!
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