The ark and a battle

I was just reading 1 Samual 4, where the Philistines and the Israelites were in battle. The Israeslites were loosing misribly, so they decided to take the ark of the covanant with them into the battle field. My NIV study notes say that they would have no doubt remembered the presence of the ark at privious victories thoughout their history, so they would have assumed that it would work again.

But rather then believing that victory would be subject to God's free decision, they assumed that the presense of God that was with the ark would guarantee victory. Their plan didn't work. Not only did they loose many people in that battle, but they lost the arc.

Is it possible that we might assume that God will do something if we just do it the way it's been done before, when God had His blessing on it?

I definatly do that. Infact even today, in thinking about one or two problems I'm facing, my attitude has been "well it's always been OK in the past, so I won't stress". Yea that sounds right, and yea, stressing is bad I know, but what's missing in that equation?
I actually missed the very reason that things have been OK in the past, because I've seeked and trusted God with the problem. So rather then trusting a method or circumstances to save the day, we need to seek and trust God alone each time.

At the end of that stroy the old guy Eli falls backwards off his chair and dies on impact. Funny eh. Well not really funny for him, but what a way to die!