“Why do you need them if you’ve got Me? Don’t you think I’m good enough?” These are the kinds of questions God starts asking when He sees us putting our security in other people instead of in Him. Because many Christians hide out in the New Testament and refuse to read books like Isaiah, they don’t realize just how sensitive God is on this issue of dependency. But ignoring certain qualities about God that we don’t like doesn’t make those qualities disappear. God is very jealous and He doesn’t like to share our trust with others. If we refuse to face this fact, we won’t get out of being disciplined, we’ll just be confused about why we’re suffering.

God is so touchy about His creatures depending on Him that He even comes down hard on unbelievers for failing to meet His requirements in this area. Railing at pagan nations for refusing to acknowledge Him as the One who sustains them, He repeatedly lists self-reliance as one of the main reasons He is pounding them into the ground. God is the One who takes care of us, therefore He is the One we should be praising and thanking. When we start saying “Look what I did” and go about patting ourselves on the back, we can expect a spanking.