Radical reliance on the Divine is very difficult if one has faulty concepts of the Divine. If you believe that the Divine is some ogreish figure, someone who likes to kill or start wars, or punish for small infractions, someone who curses you when you make mistakes, it will be difficult to trust in such a God. And who would want to rely on this kind of God for the big and little difficulties of life?

So we need a good understanding of the nature of the Divine. This can take some work as there is much psychological rubbish in the consciousness. Even the stern demanding God of the Old Testament is a really a God of Love – and this is mentioned many times. His laws and edicts are laws of love but written in the way that uneducated people – simple people – would understand.

When God is jealous, or vengeful or punishing – things stated many times in the Old Testament this is the “poetic license” taken by the Prophet. What he is saying is that if you do such and such it will be “as if” God has cursed you or punished you. The violation of a spiritual law – like the violation of a law of physics – brings pain. When the child puts his or her hand in the electric socket and gets a painful shock, it seems to the child that the electric current hates him or her – wants to punish him or her. But is this really so? Of course not. This same electricity which produced such pain, is ready and willing to serve the child – to cook the food, warm or cool the home, power the entertainments and do myriad other tasks. But electricity, like the Divine, has its laws. It is the violation of the laws that produce the shock – the pain – the apparent punishment.

The Divine is indeed loving and caring. It is constantly giving itself to us. Those who can accept receive. Those who can’t, don’t receive. And, each receives according to his or her own capacity.