The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"To Need Need"
"We need need. We require the lacks in our lives to remind, encourage, and challenge us to 'trust in the Lord with all thy heart.' "
We need need.
"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
God made us as dependent creatures, as those to whom He "giveth… life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). Presently, this involves requirements based only on our nature as supplicants, but also our existence in a fallen world rife with imperfection, challenge, and difficulty. We will remain needy creatures in our eternal state, and in fact, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will far better know that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Thankfully, however, we will be removed from the sin that tempts us to think of ourselves as gods who must supply for our own existence, and from the world, the devil, and the flesh that cause needs such as we will not know in eternity to come.
The Apostle Peter called believers to serve as "good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (I Peter 4:10). This perfectly describes our nature and function as human beings. Our Heavenly Father made us to be active creatures in heart, mind, and body - "doers of the Word and not hearers only" (James 1:22). We do so, however, as the recipients and caretakers of Another who supplies our personal requirements, and then makes possible our service to others needy like ourselves. Consider salvation and the old adage that bearing witness to the Lord Jesus involves "one beggar telling another where to find bread." Ever supplicants. Ever stewards. Ever servants. Most importantly, ever dependent sons and daughters in Christ who affirm with Him the reality of what it means to truly live as human beings personally related to God: "I live by the Father" (John 6:57).
We need need. We require the lacks in our lives to remind, encourage, and challenge us to "trust in the Lord with all thy heart" (Proverbs 3:5). We exist for His grace to be known and accessed. "I am poor and needy" declared the Psalmist, referencing not only the difficulties of life, but also his nature as one utterly dependent on the only self-existent, self supplying Being who exists (Psalm 40:17). "Thou art God alone" (Psalm 86:10). We do well to consider this truth regarding the needs of the present hour. Our Father weaves vital revelation through requirements, whether directly administered by His hand, or allowed by His wise heart and mind. Yes, we need need because it reminds us that we need Him. In this life, we would wander far away from God's supply without the difficulties that bear witness to our nature as supplicants. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
If we could find the richest person on the planet in any moment, as accounted by God, he would likely not appear as such. He might well seem to be most needy. However, if we could look into his heart, we would see "the unsearchable riches of Christ" accessed by one who keenly realizes his need for need, and his blessed opportunity to trust the Lord as supply for "life and breath and all things" (Ephesians 3:8). The writer of Hebrews well knew this truth, and beckons the needy - including you and me - to approach the Source and Supply of our existence both now and forevermore…
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in time of need."
(Hebrews 4:16)
"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure."
(II Corinthians 12:7)
Weekly Memory Verse
We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
(Ephesians 1:7-8)
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