October 6, 2026 WEST

What does it look like when leadership loses its way, and what happens when we stop running to God in our moments of crisis? Today we journey through Micah 3 and Isaiah 22, two prophetic voices crying out to people who had everything yet were spiritually bankrupt. In Micah 3, we are confronted with a sobering picture of leaders who were supposed to protect and shepherd but instead devoured the very people entrusted to their care. The prophets spoke peace when they were fed and declared war when they were not, making their message for sale to the highest bidder. Yet in the middle of all that corruption stands one voice filled with the Spirit of the Lord, marked not by popularity or platform but by divine authority and truth. That contrast challenges us to ask a hard question: is what we are doing marked by the power of God, or are we simply running on charisma and human effort? Isaiah 22 sharpens that question even further. When crisis came to Jerusalem, the people ran to their walls, their water supplies, and their own strategies, never once stopping to ask for help from the One who planned it all. That pattern is uncomfortably familiar. When pressure mounts, we so easily default to our old coping mechanisms rather than turning to God first. These two chapters together trace a path we all recognize, the pull toward self-sufficiency and the slow drift away from dependence on God. The invitation today is to examine our own default mode and ask whether we are building our lives on divine counsel or on our own resourcefulness.