God, working through the Holy Spirit, has a way of using Scripture as a mirror to our souls. And, sometimes…oftentimes, what it finds is ugly.
I think of myself as a hard worker. I am a student pastor and music director for our church. I also work with our sound technicians, visual presentation, and other technological things. I put together the visual presentation for our Sunday Services, type or put in lyrics and type the sermon notes. I pick up students at their homes in the church van. I try to visit their school once a week at lunch during the school year. I turn on the A/C or Heat at our church in preparation for Sunday Services the night before. I teach the youth Sunday School class. I have been, over the past 6 months or so, the person who deals with the church van…oil changes, repairs, etc. This is on top of all the work that I put in to do the Wednesday Night message and music for our student ministry. Oh, and trips and events for the student ministry…don’t want to leave that out.
I do a lot of stuff. Yet, I find myself oftentimes failing where it matters. And this is what I found in Isaiah 22.
Things Are Tough…I’ll Just Work Harder?
When things are hard, or I’m just stressed with stuff to do, I have a tendency to do something I shouldn’t. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I leave something out while doing something I shouldn’t.
Here it is, the groundbreaking thing that I struggle with in times of hardship. I struggle to pray when things are hard. My tendency is to work harder rather than pray. My tendency is to trust in my own hard work and understanding to get stuff done. My tendency is to be a bacon eating American who thinks that he doesn’t need help, but rather just needs to grit his teeth and get-r-done. (I don’t use this phrase so I am unsure as to whether or not it is spelled correctly.)
Sinful, Stressful Labor
As I read Isaiah 22, I was absolutely struck by how much God abhorred the attitude that I oftentimes have.
As enemies were about to destroy Jerusalem, they began working. They “looked to the weapons” of their armory (V. 8). They saw the breaches and began diverting water outside to inside the walls (V. 9). They began breaking down houses “to fortify the wall” (V. 10). These are all intelligent things to do when the enemy is bearing down on you. But, they forgot to do something, actually the most important thing.
“But you did not look to Him who did it, or see Him who planned it long ago.”-Isaiah 22:11 ESV
“In that day the Lord GOD of hostscalled for weeping and mourning,for baldness and wearing sackcloth;and behold, joy and gladness,killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,eating flesh and drinking wine.‘Let us eat and drink,for tomorrow we die.’The LORD of hosts has revealed Himself in my ears:‘Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”says the Lord GOD of hosts.”-Isaiah 22:12-14 ESV
Times like these call for fasting and prayer. Times of distress call for us to act in complete dependence upon God. And yet, it is not how God’s people behaved.
They worked, worked, worked, worked, and worked some more. Rather than praying and fasting, pleading with God for His intervention they finished up their working with a time of celebration. They went so far as to say that they would eat, drink and be merry because they would die soon. They would live and die by their own self-righteous labor.
Scripture says that we are to cast our anxiety upon Him (1 Peter 5:7), not get to work without even thinking about Him.
When things go wrong in my life or the pressures begin to mount up, I have a tendency to start working. Prayer, genuine and heartfelt pleading with God, becomes the last thing on my to-do list. And this should never be.
The Big Zit In The Mirror
As the mirror of Scripture begins showing me my failure here, I quickly realized the dirty truth. The iniquity that God opposes so fiercely here is one that I’ve often found in my own life. I find weapons in the armory. I begin diverting water. I begin tearing down houses and patching the walls. And I will neglect looking for aid in the one place it can truly be found.
God revealed to me, through the work of His Spirit and His Word, that I am a finite human being who is not capable of doing it all on my own. I am completely and totally in need of the One who created all things, holds all things together, is all powerful, all-knowing, and is completely without need of me or anything that I will accomplish.
Martin Luther is credited with saying, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” And this is the attitude that I am to have when so much is going on. To-do lists are great, they help me to get things done. But when it all becomes to much, my to-do list won’t give me the help I need. I have to rest in Him.
R. Dwain Minor
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