“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.” [Habakkuk 1.9-11]
As the prophecy goes, this prophecy is about Babylon, whom God was using to punish Judah.
However, there is an important phrase in this passage that stood our to me in particular today:
But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.
Self-reliance is a god - an idol. Self-reliance renders one not only guilty, but deeply guilty.
What strengths do we have? Technology? Military? Wisdom? Insight? Health? The list could go on. However, any of these things (and many more unnamed) can be our downfall.
It is not wrong to have technology. It is wrong to depend on technology more than upon God.
It is not wrong to be strong. It is wrong to make strength our comfort!
It is not wrong to have wisdom. It is wrong to amass knowledge as if it will save us.
It is not wrong to have insight. It is wrong to think we can figure it out ourselves instead of seeking God.
It is not wrong to have health. It is wrong to think our medicine and medical advancement makes us better.
It is simply wrong to rely upon ourselves for anything when that reliance displaces our dependence upon Almighty God our Father. When we think "we" are capable of anything, we are most dangerously close, if not fully captive to, the idolatrous trap of self-reliance.
Father, please forgive me for self-reliance. Forgive me for trusting in myself and my own resources as if I can determine the ultimate outcome of my life. Forgive me for excluding You as my everything.
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