I think we all like to believe in our abilities. We want to believe we are strong and capable and powerful and clever and can handle (or should be able to handle) anything life throws our way.

But Scripture – and experience – tells us that just isn’t always so. If God is not in it, our efforts are doomed.

We need to be careful who we listen to. The world wants us to suck it up, pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, overcome by our own resolve. God wants us to trust Him.

God promises to defeat any enemy of we who obey Him. God longs to move mountains, destroy enemies, give us victory. But so often we get in His way. The result, like we see here in Isaiah is drought, defeat, devastation.

I want to surrender today to God, completely, unreservedly, happily. I’m not ashamed to admit I need Him.