Don't manipulate -- rely on God

When life presents an obstacle, do we rely on our own cleverness by attempting to manipulate the situation to our advantage? Under threat of attack, this is exactly what the people of Jerusalem do in Isaiah 22. In the following words, God mocks the Israelites' attempts to devise their own protective plan (Isaiah 22:8-11, NLT),

You run to the armory for your weapons.

You inspect the breaks in the walls of Jerusalem.

You store up water in the lower pool.

You survey the houses and tear some down

for stone to strengthen the walls.

Between the city walls, you build a reservoir

for water from the old pool.

Those certainly sound like thorough plans. But what's the one thing the people don't do? God says (Isaiah 22:11, NLT),

But you never ask for help from the One who did all this. You never considered the One who planned this long ago.

The message is clear: Our own plotting cannot match the power of the Creator. So when life's obstacles inevitable arise, rather than plotting some scheme, and rather than attempting to manipulate the situation to our advantage, we instead should call upon God in prayer.