1 Chronicles 14:8-12: in context

David has just been made king over all Israel, and the Philistines come out in force to attack him. David does not simply rely on his experience as a warrior or presume on his past victories; he inquires of God: shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? God answers, go up, for I will deliver them into your hand. David goes up, defeats them at Baal-perazim, and says, God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a bursting flood. The Philistines abandon their idols there, and David has them burned.

The habit worth learning from David is that he inquired of God before he acted. He was an experienced soldier, a proven giant-killer, newly crowned and confident; he had every reason to trust his own military judgment against the Philistines he had beaten before. And yet he did not presume. He asked God first, shall I go up, will you deliver them, seeking direction rather than assuming that what worked before would work again, or that his own skill was enough. It would have been easy for a man of David's record to skip the asking, to charge ahead on the strength of his experience; but he made a practice of inquiring, of bringing even the decisions he might have made on his own to God first. There is wisdom in that for anyone competent and experienced in their own field. The very competence that lets us handle things ourselves can tempt us to stop asking God, to rely on our own proven judgment and presume we know what to do. David, at the height of his skill and confidence, still asked. And when the victory came, he credited it to God, not himself: God has broken through my enemies, like a bursting flood. The inquiring came first, and the crediting came after; both refused to let his own competence crowd God out. To keep asking God even in the areas where we are most capable, and to credit him when it goes well, is to keep from the presumption that undoes the competent.

In the areas where I am most experienced and capable, do I still inquire of God before acting, or does my own competence tempt me to presume, skipping the asking and relying on my proven judgment as though I no longer needed his direction?