Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel and carry out a plan, but not Mine… – Isaiah 30:1, Amplified Bible (AMP)

My Scofield Reference Bible has 1,353 pages. Those pages contain a ton of information, life stories, and words of wisdom. But the more I read those pages, the more I understand that the themes contained within the Bible are few in number. Since humanity is thick-skulled, stubborn, and arrogant, God has no choice but to pound away time and time again at a small number of lessons hoping that, eventually, we’ll get it. Even so, many of us never get it – not because of God’s lack of trying, but because of our lack of wanting to understand.

Doing things God’s way instead of our own way is one such lesson. I haven’t bothered to count how many times God harps on this theme in the Bible, but it has to be dozens, if not hundreds, of times. We find one such example in Isaiah 30:1-3 (AMP):

30 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel and carry out a plan, but not Mine, and who make a league and pour out a drink offering, but not of My Spirit, thus adding sin to sin;

2 Who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked Me—to flee to the stronghold of Pharaoh and to strengthen themselves in his strength and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

3 Therefore shall the strength and protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt be to your humiliation and confusion.

Totally uninterested in seeking God’s help in the midst of a storm, Israel made plans of their own to solve their crisis. But God would have nothing of it, and rather than bless their plans, He punished Israel for their rebelliousness.

We, too, are rebellious when we choose our own way rather than God’s. Oh, we think that God will be okay with our plans just so long as we don’t do anything sinful while pursuing those plans. What we don’t understand is that, in God’s eyes, ignoring His way in order to do things our way is itself sinful! When we ignore God’s wisdom to listen to our own, we are basically telling God that our way is better than His way. Such an attitude is offensive and rebellious to our Heavenly Guide, and when we have offended God, we have sinned, plain and simple.

What are you planning to do that you haven’t bothered to counsel with God about? You’d better stop right now, seek God’s guidance, and totally change direction, if that is what He tells you to do. If you don’t obey, you are telling God that your way is better than His, and doing so is downright prideful. As James 4:6 teaches us, “…God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have God working for me than against me.

What about you?

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