Isaiah 7: Where do I turn? When I am in fear or trouble, where do I turn? Having an engineering mindset, I typically buckle down, learn, and formulate my own solutions. Or I think how I could avoid the problem all together and deal with it a later day. I actually have a pretty high risk tolerance for being an engineer. Over and over again, the kings of Judah turn to their own understanding to their and their nation’s demise. Each time they turn to God in prayer and ask the prophets what God’s will is, God answers them. After turning to God, the struggles and hardships I face are merely smoldering stubs of firewood in the grand scheme of things. These struggles are temporary compared to eternity. “But God doesn’t answer my prayers,” I complain. He doesn’t talk through prophets like he used to. After 10 minutes of reading the Word, I realize He does talk back. Christ is the sign from God – “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” How much more of a sign do I need to believe and trust in Him? What more could God do to make this so obvious for me? In retrospect, seeing the kings of Judah ignoring God makes me cringe because the answers and solutions are so obvious. As I reflect on my own past, I realize how my decisions did not include first turning to God in prayer. “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”