Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the LORD and the king’s house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria . . . 2 Chronicles 16:2
Over the weekend, my wife asked if I’d help move a table from upstairs to downstairs. She helped me navigate the table to the top of the stairs where we had to make a decision. I looked at that table, believing that I could carry it down the stairs myself. My wife suggested we take it apart and work together, which made sense. For a few seconds though, I had an internal argument. Overconfident in my skills, I thought, I don’t need help. I got this. Remembering previous experiences when I’ve gouged the walls of the stairway with furniture, I relented and took the table apart. It was the right call. Though the table would have ended up at the bottom of the stairs, doing it myself probably would have resulted in some damage to both table and dry wall. Sometimes my overconfidence and self-reliance get me into trouble.
This is true in my spiritual life as well. When in crisis, I’ll often turn to God, desperately seeking his assistance. Then, when things go well, I tend to become self-reliant, following my own way. Then, when a new challenge arises, I mistakenly think, I got this. I forget how I badly needed God and I mistakenly think that I can handle the next trial. Self-reliance though, is the opposite of faith and often compounds my problems.
Overconfidence and self-reliance are the enemies of our faith. This is the lesson of today’s passage in which Asa, King of Judah, found himself under siege by Baasha, King of Israel. Just a couple of chapters earlier, we read how Asa, hopelessly outnumbered, called on God who destroyed his enemies. In today’s passage however, Asa grew overconfident in his successes and came to believe that he could handle the next crisis on his own. When a new enemy threatened to destroy him, Asa didn’t call on God but rather took the situation into his own hands. Pilfering silver and gold from the temple, he bribed the Syrians to come to his aid. For his lack of faith, Asa incurred God’s anger and suffered the consequences.
In times of crisis, I’ve learned faith, relying on God because I had nothing else left. In times of success though, I tend to turn from God, becoming overconfident and self-reliant. The challenge for me now is to remember that I need God as much today as I did back in my crisis. If I forget this and begin following my own way, I’m likely to create another crisis. I don’t want to go back there though. So, today, I must remind myself of my constant need for God.