Doing it yourself has some advantages, but it comes with consequences
By Dean Collins
All your experience is great, and it’s good to leverage it appropriately. We’ve likely all heard someone say God doesn’t waste anything. He wants to use all of life’s experiences, including the seasons of struggle, for his Kingdom and his glory. However, you may have noticed that once you’ve been at your job awhile, your confidence in your abilities might tempt you just to take care of things on your own.
Why bother God with things you can clearly figure out by yourself? And if you’ve had some success in your work, you’ve likely also had some compliments and praise for your efforts. I warned in a recent post about believing your own headlines. The praise of others plus your own experience might lead you to forget seeking God’s will and his daily provision.
The praise of others plus your own experience might lead you to forget seeking God’s will and his daily provision.
According to 2 Chronicles, Asa had been king for 36 of his 41-year reign when he apparently let his self-confidence and experience get the best of him. We can relate. If you’ve done many deals, the next one seems pretty easy. If you’ve coached many teams, do you really need to get advice for the next season? When the third or fourth baby comes along, you have certainly mastered this parenting thing, right?
We may not be bold enough to admit how experience can produce overconfidence in our abilities. We may not realize we’ve quit depending on God for help. Whether deliberately or not, we tend to save God for the things we don’t know how to do or for situations we realize really are bigger than we are.
We can only speculate on why Asa decided to handle this challenge by himself, but his choices led to long-term consequences. When the king of Israel was breathing down on Judah and getting too close for comfort, King Asa pulled out the checkbook and worked a deal with the king in Syria to break an alliance he had with the king of Israel. Asa forked over lots of money from the temple to secure this agreement. And it worked. Israel had to pull back from their pressure on Judah.
Asa’s deal-making with the king of Syria then allowed for King Asa to deploy his staff to fortify important assets for Judah. Seemed like a solid plan to Asa. And it was, except for one thing. Asa forgot to include God in his plans. After decades of watching God provide and secure victories for Judah, King Asa decided to do this one on his own.
After decades of watching God provide and secure victories for Judah, King Asa decided to do this one on his own.
God sent a prophet to correct the king and call him to repentance, but the proud king did what we have all done sometimes when we are corrected. We get mad. Instead of listening to God’s prophet, he decided to throw the prophet in jail. And, as if that wasn’t enough, King Asa took out his anger by inflicting punishment on others. Apparently, in his last few years in office, he allowed his stubbornness to continue. Later when he had health problems, he called the physicians in to help but never asked for God’s healing. His independence and self-reliance got the best of him.
There’s a powerful little verse in the 16th chapter of 2 Chronicles we should meditate on. It’s a verse that reminds us what God desires and who he is seeking and wants to support: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”
God isn’t looking for heroes. He doesn’t need rock stars to perform for him. What God wants are people whose hearts simply seek him. Those are the ones he rushes to support. God doesn’t need us to try and do it by ourselves. He has all the resources and all the wisdom and power to accomplish whatever mission we are assigned.
What God wants are people whose hearts simply seek him.
I read part of the Sermon on the Mount this morning right after reading this passage in Chronicles. As I read Jesus’ teachings on prayer, including the example of the Lord’s Prayer, it struck me that we are to ask for daily bread. In order to pray for daily bread, we need to remember to pray daily. We tend not to pray for things we believe we can provide without God’s help. Maybe that’s the thing Asa forgot. Hearts that are blameless before God realize that humility before God and dependence on God is the simplicity God desires from us.
If we ask, he provides. If we seek him, we find him along with the answers we need. And when we knock, he will always open the door to spend time with us. These simple and daily practices result in having the full support of God. He will put his full gaze on our every move when we humbly seek him. And in the end, we will discover there will be no end, because we will dwell with him forever.
Your time with God’s Word
2 Chronicles 16:7-10; Matthew 6:6, 9-13; 7:7-8 ESV
Photo by Dingzeyu Li on Unsplash
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