When I was six years old, I was cast as the star of my kindergarten class play, The Little Red Hen. I wore a costume made of fluffy red feathers (thanks, Mom!) and strutted with all the gap-toothed charisma I could muster. Throughout the play, I repeated a simple song that—if memory serves me right about 30 years later—went something like this:

I can do it by myself.

I can do it by myself.

I’m not King Kong, but my body is strong.

I can sing this song, and it won’t take long.

I can do it by myself! I can do it by myself!

Even now when doing mundane tasks, that song finds its way to my humming lips. It doesn’t have an inherently bad message, but that little ditty unfortunately has become too much of a theme song in my real life: I’m awful at accepting help from others! It feels easier and safer to rely on myself only.

However, as my age and responsibilities have grown, it has become more difficult to strut around proudly, proclaiming, “I can do it (be a Christian, manage a home, rock a marriage, raise kids, and succeed in the workplace) by MYSELF!” I’m finding out daily and deeply the humbling truth that I can’t carry my load without help. “Going it alone” is an arrogant posture to walk through life with—and it’s not befitting for a follower of Jesus.

The book of Isaiah is one place in the Bible where the soothing truth that God is our help shines brightly. As I’ve been reading Isaiah lately, these passages have melted my defensive, self-reliant heart into remembering the depth of God’s love for me. It’s human nature, but you and I continually forget that getting into heaven does not depend on our own striving. We vainly try to put our faith in anything and everything outside of the One who can actually help us, both temporarily and eternally!

While we were still stuck in the muck of our own pride, God cared enough to send his Son as a perfect substitute. Devoid of conceit, Jesus took a posture of perfect reliance on his Father while he served our life sentence on earth. His death and resurrection hand down to us this tremendous gift: because of Jesus, we don’t have to do all this by ourselves anymore!

We don’t have to go through life only relying on our own intelligence, which is continually flawed. Isaiah 48:17 says, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”

We don’t have to go through life feeling alone and forgotten, with only ourselves to rely on. No! God comforts us through Isaiah: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15,16).

We don’t have to fear death or think that earning our way out of hell is only on our shoulders, because we know we have a guaranteed home in heaven. We are forgiven because of Jesus, as he says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25) and “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).

We definitely don’t need to fear the powers of the world or the hurtful people who occupy it, because we do not walk alone. God is our helper. He proclaims:

• “This is what the Lord says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you…” (Isaiah 44:2).
• “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron” (Isaiah 45:2).
• “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).
• “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you” (Isaiah 49:8).
• “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and who lays the foundations of the earth” (Isaiah 51:12,13).

When you are tempted to believe the lie that you have to do it all and do it alone, put down that heavy burden and give it to God. Don’t hold on to your ego and the motto, “I can do it by myself!” Instead, sink into the relief of God’s remarkable promises, trust in his unending love, and with Isaiah, proclaim, “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced” (Isaiah 50:7).