​Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in
​array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 
And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing
with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power:
help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name
we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God;
let not man prevail against thee. 
So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah;
and the Ethiopians fled. 2Ch 14:10-12

"Prayer in emergencies should be founded on a strong faith in God’s independence of human resources and methods of judgment. Much is gained when we appreciate the ease with which God achieves marvelous issues in response to prayer. "A God doing wonders" is one of His significant titles—significant of the usage of His dominion. To Him there are no such things as emergencies.

​The example before us suggests a profound sense of the inadequacy of all other sources of relief but God. We need to feel that we are shut up to God, and to God only.

Prayer in emergencies is a profound identification with God. "In Thy name we go against this multitude." In a selfish prayer we beat the winds. Nothing is sure in this world but the purposes of God. No interests are safe but His. No cause is secure but His.

One other phase of prayer in such emergencies is a hearty recognition of God’s ownership of us. "O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee." By the right of creation and redemption we belong to God. Will God desert His own with such rights as these"?
(A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 33)

"Asa acted promptly and energetically as the occasion required." Only one purpose moved him, and that was to bring out all the military strength of his kingdom, and at once, with no unnecessary delay, strike the foe, every soldier realizing that the crown of victory was the prize to be won or lost, according as he should be faithful or unfaithful in his particular duty. Having acted thus promptly and energetically, then--

​"Asa called on God for help. He did not ask God to work a miracle on his behalf." Whoever calls upon God for help without first helping himself, without first putting forth his own efforts to secure that for which he invokes the Divine aid, will call upon God in vain. 

"Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning God by faith. It is well when self-distrust leads to confidence. But that is not enough. It is better when self-distrust and confidence in God lead to courage. And as Asa goes on, “Help us, for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude.” Never mind though it is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are well enough, but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want of faith in Christian people, both in regard to their own lives and in regard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading under much too respectable a name, and calls itself “judicious caution” and “prudence.” If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting the dangers and difficulties that beset us, and be sure that He will help us.

The all-powerful plea which God will answer. “Thou art my God, let not man prevail against Thee.” That prayer covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your God you will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made God’s cause yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not be beaten. “Thou art our God.” “It takes two to make a bargain,” and God and we have both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but there is an act of ours required, too, and you must take the God that is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His. And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, to all intents of strength-giving and blessedness.
​(A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Let's Apply this to the New Testament Christian
​But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that
your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1Co 15:57-58

Paul speaks in this chapter as if the resurrection of Christ were the victory over the grave. Was it impossible then, for men, before the resurrection of Christ, to look beyond the grave?

​The apostles unquestionably speak of our Lord’s resurrection as an unprecedented fact in the world’s history. But they say that its importance to human beings lay in this, that it declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power. It was an act retrospective and prospective. It revealed the Head of the human race. It revealed the relation of the human race, in the person of its Head, to the Father of all. That which was manifested to be true, when He who had taken on Him our nature, and had died as we die, rose out of death because He could not possibly be holden of it, had been true always. Those who believed in Christ could not doubt that man was to learn his condition from Christ, that he could learn it only from Christ. The evidence for the resurrection lay in all the history, in all the experiences and life of men, up to that hour. Fishermen and tent-makers could not establish it. If there was such a Person, such a Head of man, such a Son of God, as they said was denoted by this event, God would show that there was; if not, there was no gospel.

It is God who giveth us the victory. We are in as much danger of fancying that He is not the God of Life, but of death that is bent on our destruction, as the Jews or Greeks were. And next, it is most needful to remember that this victory is a gift. Therefore give up thy life to God, that He may use it as He knows best. Let Him have thy vigor, to turn it against the foes of thy country and of men. Let Him have thy feebleness, that His fatherly love and sympathy, and the obedience that He wrought out in Christ by suffering, may shine forth in thee. Be sure that He has most various methods of manifesting the power of His Son’s resurrection here; but that, if thou trusts  in Him, and dost not faint, the end will be the same; all shall share alike in the victory.

​It is a victory. Immortality is not natural if by natural is meant that which would befall us supposing we were not voluntary spiritual beings. It belongs to us only as voluntary spiritual beings. If we surrender that condition, we surrender our immortality, we take up our position as mortal. But we cannot surrender it; we feel and know that we cannot, even when we are trying most to do it, even when we are stooping to the deepest ignominy. And therefore let us not for a moment cease to connect resurrection with faith, with hope; therefore with conflict. We cannot, if we connect Christ’s resurrection with ours, if we judge of ours by His. He set His face as a flint, His garments were the garments of One who trod the wine-fat. It was an agony, though it was the agony of submission. His sweat was as drops of blood, though the issue was, "Father, not My will, but Thine be done." Therefore God gave Him the victory, the perfect victory of spirit and soul and body.  (F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 299)

God's Conquerors
 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us,
​who can be against us? 
 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom 8:31-32

​This is the close of the Apostle’s argument. He has shown that believers are dear to God because they are in Christ; that their every need has been anticipated and provided for; that their guilt has been canceled and provision made for their holy and victorious character; that the Holy Spirit is in them and with them forever; that sin is under their feet and heaven over their heads-what, then, have they to fear?
​
Paul then goes on to show that the love of God is unaffected by even the most extreme changes of our condition-neither death, nor life, as Paul speaks in Rom_8:38-39.
​
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
​
​That it is undiverted from us by any other order of beings, whether angels, principalities, or powers. That it is universally present throughout creation. And finally, that this love is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But in order to know and experience this love, we must be united to the Lord Jesus by a living faith. Then we shall be more than conquerors, that is, we shall not only be victorious, but shall get spoil out of the very things that have hurt us.
(F.B. Meyer)

Conclusion:
Along with these devotions and scriptures, a lengthy study could be done using the words of Jesus when he taught the disciples on prayer, and the importance of faith. In my years of walking with the Lord, I've learned many lessons, and still do, each day. A few I'll add here:
Mat 13:57  And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. 
Mat 13:58  And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. 
​
Mat 17:17  Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 
Mat 17:18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. 
Mat 17:19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 
Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 
Mat 17:21  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
​
Some of the most important lessons in prayer comes from faith, and trust in Jesus to do what He's said He will do. My level of answered prayer hinges a great deal on whether I believe He is who He says He is, and if I believe He will do for me what He has promised-my level of trust and faith is what opens the door for me to see answers to prayer for myself, and others.
When we are praying for other's we are dealing with another level and realm of prayer that has a lot to do with the other persons free will, and whether they have any desire to know Jesus, or follow Him. When people reject Him, and dishonor Him, we will not see any answers on their behalf, until they have a change of heart. That's the only prayer we can take to the Lord, until this changes. A good example of this, is the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus-and the encounter with Jesus that took him to the  ground. When he arose, he now was Paul, the Apostle, who would face a lifetime of obstacles, adversity, and suffering, but also win the salvation of many souls for Christ, and the Kingdom of God.
This is part of the warfare we wage in prayer-that's for another time. I'll finish this with one of my favorite verses of scripture-and one I use a lot in times of prayer, and in intercession:
Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
Lorna Couillard

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven,
​and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee: 
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. Joh 17:1-4

“Father, the hour is come.” The hour; the hour of all hours the most important. What hour like that in interest, what hour so big with momentous issues on all the past, and on all the future! That was the central hour of all time’s hours. The confluence of the two eternities was at that time-point. That hour was the keystone of time’s huge arch, that arch which rests on the one side, and the other on eternity. Many hours in the world’s history are marked and memorable. The hour of the birth or death, the crisis-hour of one of the world’s great ones, a thinker, worker, statesman, or warrior; the hour which gave birth to and introduced some mighty revolution, which proved to be the birth or death hour of a nation, altering the destiny of millions of our race for weal or for woe, is important and to be marked; but what hour like this! an hour which had its bearing on the whole universe, and whose transactions were to effect eternally God and man, angels and devils. It was for this hour that the great clock of Time was set in motion at first. It was for this hour that the world was created and upheld; for this hour Heaven’s justice waited; in it sin was made an end of, and transgression was finished; in it the law of God was magnified, and made honorable; holiness was vindicated; the devil and his work virtually destroyed; death slain, and God’s chosen people saved with an everlasting salvation. The hour is come. The time was numbered to an hour. The betrayer had gone forth on his fell errand; the machinery of death was prepared, and the Victim was ready to bleed and die on the altar. And He it is who reminds the Father that the hour is come. It is Isaac that tells Abraham that it is time he should be laid on the wood and the knife be upraised. The Lamb of God says, It is time He should die, to take away the sin of the world. The hour is come: how solemn and how applicable are the words! This hour was long in coming, but it has come at last. The eye of many a priest and prophet, king and peasant, of the olden time, had been strained in looking earnestly across the intervening ages towards that hour; but, one by one, the eye of these men grew dim with age and closed in death, and still it came not.
(T. Alexander, M. A.)

"Consider what were the purposes of God which by the death of our Lord were answered, and which without it, as far as we can see, could not have been answered so that God was thereby glorified.

​And first, I think, we must feel that hereby a mark was set upon the devil’s work, sin, which no other conceivable procedure could have set upon it. Its hatefulness to God; its exceeding atrocity; the fearfulness of being tempted to commit it; was hereby made intelligible to all—that nothing less than this agonizing torture inflicted on the Son of God could expiate it.

The next important purpose answered by the sufferings of our blessed Master, and the manifest carrying out of God’s will thereby, is their eminent adaptation to establish a spiritual kingdom as wholly distinct from a carnal one. His kingdom was manifestly not of this world. Pilate marveled that it could be called a kingdom at all, not comprehending the power of holy example, of hearty doctrine, of humble patience. Yet herein was our Father glorified, and hereby were won such glorious triumphs as worldly policy, or force of arms, or outward wealth and influence could never have achieved. For these do but for a while affect the present interests of mankind; whereas the patient endurance, the cheerful alacrity of our blessed Lord unto every good work, His humility, His meekness, His constancy, His love, His gentleness, His unexampled self-denial on all occasions, have left behind them solid and everlasting memorials—have in all ages of the world been the stay of sufferers, the comfort of mourners, the strength of them that wrestled with temptation, the hope of downcast, afflicted souls; and not only so, but have sanctified all the instrumentalities wherewith the purposes of this world are carried out.

Consider how entirely Christ, by His life and death, has shut out all shams and pretenses to religion,—has made it impossible for insincerity and worldliness to indulge in the flattering hope of entering in through the door whose posts and lintels are all sprinkled with blood. What is this blood, and what does it signify? It is the blood of the Lamb that was slain, of the only begotten Son of God, Who gave His life for our lives, due to God for sin."  (Bishop Thorold, Penny Pulpit, No. 410, new series)

Note: As Jesus lays down this earthly life, and presents his finished work here to the Father, he begins to take up His mantle of High Priest and our Intercessor-and maintains that work even now-before the Father, for every child of God. He prays for us every day, this should be a great source of blessing, and assurance, that His eye is upon you, every moment. You are never out of His care.

Jesus Compared to Melchizedek-
​Heb 7:21  (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) 
Heb 7:22  By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. 
Heb 7:23  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 
Heb 7:24  But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 
Heb 7:25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"I Have Finished the Work Thou Gave Me"
"I do not think that here in this text our Lord intended to refer to the final and completing act—the blood-shedding which was remission. I believe He reviewed His life—the subjection, the pain, the obedience learned by the things He suffered, the teaching and the trial, the subjection to indignities, to time and space, to cold and hunger, to devils and to men—in the light of all these visionary recollections, He said: "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." This saying of our Lord—it is a very arrow of light gleaming across the burdened valley of our being—"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." In this specialty, which was the Savior’s triumph, lies the ground also of the Christian’s consolation—specialty, I say, for God sets the work, God hems the work around with difficulties. We succeed, it is because He has aided us; we fail, it is because He would teach us; and thus often failure becomes the footstool of the highest success. It is an illustrious thought, and it is the bright, red light along the horizon of life, that every one has his appointed field. "Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us."

Sorrow is work. Was not His sorrow work? Sorrow is the rain which descends down to the very roots of our being. Sorrow has an influence on the heart like that of the atmospheric action on the hard rocks and hills: it loosens, it softens, it disintegrates, it levels, and from the mold it makes the flowers and the fruits of the heart, as the flowers and fruits of earth spread their bloom.

Temptation is work. Man does not see the victory or the triumph; but God does.

Faith is work. But this is our work in relation to God, and sympathy is work—our work in relation to man.

Think how Divine is work—in its lowest as well as in its highest form—to make something. Not one is forgotten before God. The fisherman going forth to the rivers, the ploughboy to the fields, the dairyman to the farmyard, the artisan to the shop, much-enduring man to toil. How Divine, how godlike is work—to draw the silken thread of Spirit through the hard needle of difficulty.  (E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 306)

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
​hast given me; for they are thine. 
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou
hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. Joh 17:9-11

​​“They are Thine”​

"He had created them, selected them out of the many thousands of Israel, to be trained by His Son. The preparation they received under the minister of Jesus was altogether of God; and the variety of their dispositions, qualifying them for varied service and duty, was due to His wisdom and power. It is one thing to be God’s creatures, made originally in His image; it is much higher and grander to be God’s men, created anew in Christ Jesus.

“I pray for them.” The word pray here is a word which Christ Jesus alone uses in relation to His prayers. The Savior never uses the word ordinarily used to express prayers by man, but one which has the sense of authority in it, and which therefore it is not proper for us to use. How much, then, is involved in this announcement! Frequently in the course of social intercourse we say to a friend in difficulty or affliction, when we feel that our poor thoughts, counsels, or help can be of little or no avail, “I will pray for you.” Does that not include the highest thought, and the most effective aid that we can reach? What magnitude and depth of meaning, then, must there be in our Savior’s words, “I pray for you”! The Lord who prayed for these disciples intercedes for His people now. There is not a single day of our life, however full of duty, difficulty, or darkness, in which we may not derive encouragement and comfort from this gracious word of Christ."
(Biblical Illustrator)

​In Christ’s own oratory we hear Him pray. But how wonderful! There is a tone of expectant faith in this marvelous prayer of assured trust, as if He knew that He was asking what was in His Father’s heart and thought. The Lord speaks as if He had already passed through death, and were pleading before the throne. He is glad to have authority only that He may use it to give life.
The Father’s gift to Jesus consisted in the men who followed Him, the word He spoke, the works He did, the name He bore. How careful the Good Shepherd was of those who had been given to Him! He prayed for them, He kept them, He entrusted them as His dying legacy to His Father’s care. Though He did not pray directly for the world, He was doing His best for it, in concentrating all His solicitude on those who were to be the messengers of His gospel.
In Joh_17:10 we are reminded of Luk_15:31.
Luk 15:31  And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 
The very words which the father said to the elder brother are here appropriated by our Lord; and we are taught that we have the privilege of entering on the same inheritance of grace and power as our Lord had. He won for us, unworthy though we are, the privilege of saying, All thine are mine. If only we believed this, and lived as children in our Father’s house, how different life would become.  ​(F.B. Meyer)

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time: 
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 1Pe 5:6-7
The Divine Care-bearer

"Nothing can be more beautifully true to the real meaning and intention of this passage than this translation. It conveys exactly what St. Peter means it to convey. Its rhythm is perfect. But we must be upon our guard that we do not run into a confusion of thought from the repetition of the word "care." "Care" can never be to God what it is to us. To a Being infinite in power, love, and leisure, "care" can never attach in its inferior "and baser sense. The very reason why we should "cast" our "care" is that God cannot be made unhappy or weary by it. The fact is that, in the original of this verse, the word "care" is not repeated. It is quite a different expression which is applied to God from the one which is used concerning us. We may write it, "Casting all your anxiety upon God, for to God all that concerns you is dear." Nevertheless our version is admirable, and infinitely better than any other. It exactly carries the thought and the comfort which God meant it to do, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."
​
"Care" is a word which is used both in a good and bad sense in the Bible. "Care chokes the word." Yet we are to "have care one to another." Quite literally, the word used for "care," in the beginning of my text, is the same which Christ employs when He says, "Take no thought for the morrow": and it is, "Do not split your mind; do not have a divided heart." "Cast all your corroding thought upon Him, for He careth for you." It is a delightful thing to do—to "cast care." It leaves life so light! But never think it is an easy thing. Here again the word God uses, both in the Greek and in the English, is very discriminating, for to throw, to hurl, to "cast," is not easy. It involves a great effort. Every one who has tried it has found it so. It is a very rare thing, and a very difficult thing, to do what we have to do, and then have no "care" about it. No words can say how blessed a thing it is when it is done. But it is no light thing to do. We do not lay these things; we "cast" them.

You must begin with the fundamental truth that Christ is both "the Sin-bearer" and "the Care-bearer" of His people. I do not mean that these two things are really different. Sin is the heaviest of all "cares." Nobody who has ever felt its burden will question that. But, strange as it may appear, it is often more difficult to "cast" our "cares" than it is our sins, else why are so many Christians so burdened with daily life and depressed with so many anxieties? Why is it that men who are sure of their salvation yet are not sure of their constant provision? The fact is that in some respects it is a higher religion to trust God and leave all with God about temporal things than it is about spiritual things. We may easily deceive ourselves about our spiritual faith, and think we trust when we do not, because the subject is far away out of sight; but temporal things are visible, and real, and close; and we can scarcely make a mistake whether we trust God about them or not. They are daily tests of faith. And many fail here who think that their spiritual faith is strong. Yet could that be the case? Can we really believe in a God of grace when we do not rest in a God of providence?

But now the important question is, What shall we do that we may "cast"? How shall we fulfil this kind and hard command?
(1) Realize, and take a large estimate of, the God of your life and of your providence. See His hand in everything. Feel His eye always upon you, and believe in His fondness for you. Never think of this world as being ruled by general, universal laws. It is. But think of what is as true, and much better for us to think of, though we may not be able to see the reconciliation between the two: that there is a particular and special providence in every little thing, and that God overrules everything for His own; that you are a center round which the universe of providence circles.
(2) When you say your prayers, pray about the small things—the things which are upon your mind at the moment. Pray about the things, whatever they be, concerning which at that time you are most interested. Do not pray vague prayers, the prayers that will suit everybody, but your own personal prayer, just as much about your worldly trial as about your heavenly one. (3) Live in the day: in the day’s duties; in the day’s trials; the day’s strength; the day’s joys. Live inside the day. "The morning and the evening"; "the evening and the morning"; and tomorrow heaven. 
(J. Vaughan, Sermons, 13th series, p. 197)

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. Mat 28:20

"​Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear. Rather look at them with full hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. He has kept you hitherto; do you but hold fast to His dear hand, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand, He will bear you in His arms.
Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. -- Frances do Sales
"The Lord is my shepherd."
Not was, not may be, nor will be. "The Lord is my shepherd," is on Sunday, is on Monday, and is through every day of the week; is in February, is in December, and every month of the year; is at home, and is in China; is in peace, and, is in war; in abundance, and in penury." -- (J. Hudson Taylor)

​HE will silently plan for thee,
Object thou of omniscient care;
God Himself undertakes to be
Thy Pilot through each subtle snare.

He WILL silently plan for thee,
So certainly, He cannot fail!
Rest on the faithfulness of God,
In Him thou surely shalt prevail.

He will SILENTLY plan for thee
Some wonderful surprise of love.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,
But it is kept for thee above.

He will silently PLAN for thee,
His purposes shall all unfold;
The tangled skein shall shine at last,
A masterpiece of skill untold.

He will silently plan FOR THEE,
Happy child of a Father’s care,
As though no other claimed His love,
But thou alone to Him wert dear.
E. Mary Grimes
Whatever our faith says God is, He will be.

"These words follow others of great significance: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.” The two verses taken together state this truth, that anxiety carries with it a division of faith between God and self—a lack of faith in God, proportioned to the amount of care which we refuse to cast on Him; an excess of self-confidence, proportioned to the amount which we insist on bearing ourselves. If we refuse to let God carry for us what He desires and offers to carry, pride is at the bottom of the refusal. Therefore, the Apostle says, “Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand. Confess the weakness of your hand. Do not try to carry the anxiety with your weak hand. Cast it all on Him. Believe that He cares for you, and be humbly willing that He should care for you.”
​(Great Texts)

Where there's vanity, humility has no room to be present. Every aspect of vanity, is to glorify ones self, there's no room for the Spirit of God, to reveal to us our frailness, our mistakes, our sins, and our need for a Savior. Vanity won't allow us to be honest with ourselves, or with God. We have no ability to see ourselves as God sees us. We are blinded by our own high opinions of ourselves, and won't allow God to shed light on us, to reveal the habits and sins we've allowed to become imbedded in us, and we don't realize our conduct reveals ourselves to other's. Vanity blinds us, and ultimately destroys us, unless we come to the place where we allow God to show us what is really in us, and shows us we need to ask Him to forgive us our pride and sin, and ask Him to change us, because we cannot change ourselves. When we can be this honest with Him, then He can begin to do something for us, and our circumstances. If our outward situation doesn't, our souls and spirits will-and we will conquer and overcome, no matter what the circumstances.

"​Vanity, or love of display, is one of the most contemptible and pernicious passions that can take possession of the human mind. Its roots are in self-ignorance-its fruits are affectation and falsehood. Vanity is a kind of mental intoxication, in which the pauper fancies himself a prince, and exhibits himself in aspects disgusting to all observers." (D. Thomas, D. D.)

“One very hot summer’s day I was driving along a dusty road, when I overtook a woman with a heavy basket on her arm. I did not want to feel like the priest in the story that Jesus told, who ‘passed by on the other side,’ so I offered her a ride. She gladly accepted it, but as she rode still carried the heavy basket on her arm. ‘My good woman,’ I said as kindly as I could, ‘your basket would ride just as well in the bottom of the trap, and you would be much more comfortable.’ ‘Ah, so it would, sir, thank you; I never thought of that,’ she said, as she put her burden down. ‘That is very much like what I often do,’ I remarked after a little while. ‘Like you do, sir?’ and the woman looked up inquiringly. ‘Yes; I, too, often carry heavy burdens when there is no need for it.’ She waited for my explanation. ‘The Lord Jesus has taken me up into His chariot, and I rejoice to ride in it, but very often I carry a great burden of care on my back that would ride just as well if I put it down, for the Lord would carry me and my cares too.’ ‘Yes, bless the Lord!’ said she, with a joy that told that she had found the cure for care. ‘It is true, sir, when He takes us up in His chariot, He taken cares and all.’ Here is the cure for your cares, for all the little daily worries and the burdens of anxiety that oppress you-the Lord careth for you.” (M. Guy Pearse)
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Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 
Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
​Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.