My Best Effort

Self-Reliance and Hard Work are good qualities in a person.  If our children grow up to be hard working, self-reliant adults, most of us would be happy with that.

But anything taken to an extreme can be a bad thing. It's like the TV show "Doomsday Preppers".  People preparing for potential disasters is a good thing.  Have water on hand.  Keep some canned goods on the shelf.  Get extra flashlight batteries or even own a generator.  This is all good, but the people featured on this show are spending a considerable amount of money and time and effort to build a bunker to protect from all of the perceived threats.  I suppose for those of us without a bunker, when disaster strikes we will need to work with our neighbors through the problems and trust in God to provide for us, just as humans have done for thousands of years.

I wonder if are all sometimes like the preppers.  We think "I'll take care of this," and we don't think about God's plan in all of this.  We rely on our own efforts in stead of trusting in God's provision.

So somewhere there is a balance between doing nothing for ourselves and trying to do everything for ourselves.  In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out his disciples to preach with no provisions except their sandals trusting in God to provide as they had need.  Personally, I don't like to travel without reservations at a nice motel (Hopefully with a pool and breakfast).

Trusting in our own abilities more than God's provision is all about pride, and that pride detours us from His plans and course for our lives.