Avoiding Alliances
"Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, 'Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and my father. Behold, I am sent to you a silver and gold; go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.'" 2 Chronicles 16:2-3
The spreadsheet on the desk glowed with a row of red numbers, and the mounting pressure at the office felt heavy enough to crush her chest. A difficult project deadline was looming, and the client emails were piling up fast. Her fingers immediately flew to her keyboard. Before she even whispered a prayer, she was opening a group chat to find the colleague who always fixed things, drafting a frantic message that would unload her panic onto someone else. We have all lived in that workplace panic. When pressure mounts, our instincts often betray us, sending us scrambling for human rescue nets before we ever pause to look heavenward.
King Asa fell into this exact trap. He sat on a throne and held a history of incredible victories, knowing firsthand how God could rescue a nation against impossible odds. Yet, when a political threat arose, his first instinct was not prayer. He stripped the temple treasury, packed up silver and gold, and sent them off to buy the protection of a foreign king. He replaced the Almighty with a human ally, trading divine power for a political safety net. We do the same thing every day. When a career crisis hits, we update LinkedIn before we check our spiritual posture. When a relationship fractures, we seek the advice of five different friends before we seek the wisdom of the Father.
It is easy to fall into the habit of treating pastors, mentors, and counselors as spiritual middlemen, as if they hold a direct line to heaven that we cannot access ourselves. We sit around feeling paralyzed when we cannot reach the people we believe give us strength. But the veil was torn for a reason. Jesus became our permanent high priest, opening a direct pathway to the throne of grace.
"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5)
People will always fail us because people are simply human. Even the prophet Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours, prone to fear and exhaustion. When we make human helpers our first responders, we set ourselves up for profound disappointment.
The turning point comes when we realize that our frantic scrambling is actually a quiet invitation to rest. This truth has to mean something practical when you walk into your office or sit at your kitchen table facing a mountain of uncertainty. Pause before you send that anxious text. Take three deep breaths and consciously transfer the weight of the situation from your shoulders to the shoulders of the Savior. Before you call a friend, before you check social media, and before you spiral into worst-case scenarios, bow your head right where you are and speak your fear out loud to God first.
Reflection
What is the very first thing you do when a wave of anxiety hits, and how can you shift that immediate impulse toward God today?
Today's Prayer
Lord, you know how quickly my heart panics when the pressure rises and the path forward looks uncertain. Forgive me for the times I have run to human alliances and worldly solutions while leaving You as my last resort. Help me to break the habit of frantic scrambling and teach me to bring my deepest fears straight to Your feet first. Remind me that You are a trustworthy refuge and that Your strength never fails. Amen.
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