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We all have needs.
Biologically speaking, we need: water, air, and food to sustain our physical bodies. We also have need of physical things to help us feel safe and secure; things like clothing, money, and shelter.
Not having one of the above mentioned needs met, can make us feel insecure and send us into a frenzy going to extreme measures in order to secure what we are lacking. To borrow from Snickers, “you’re not you when you’re hungry.”
Biblically speaking, we know that King Jesus reassures his followers, “do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25.)
Life is more than the body. We are made up of: body, mind, and soul/spirit.
This fact indicates we have needs extending outside of our physical bodies.
Statistically speaking, if you have food in your fridge, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you’re richer than 75% of the world’s population.
I am blessed to say that by this standard, though I don’t always feel it, I am “rich.” I would venture to say that you’re “rich” also.
If you’re like me, it’s not biological or physical needs you struggle to trust God will provide; the struggle is sometimes relying on God to provide emotional sustenance.
We all have emotional needs; emotional needs that range depending on the day, time and or season of life we are in.
In my spiritual walk with Christ, it has taken me time to learn how to emotionally rely on Him. I’ve found that when I do, take and surrender my thoughts and emotions to him, He is faithful to give a peace that passes understanding; His peace.
I’ve also found that as He sends the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to groan for and comfort me in my time of need.
Though I’ve learned how to cry out to Him in times of joy, sorrow, or confusion I still struggle to do so at times.
Many years ago a friend of mine said that when it comes to taking her emotional needs to the Lord she feels like a “needy girlfriend.”
The more I thought about this, I proposed to her that I believe when it comes to God, I believe I will always be the “needy girlfriend.”
Thinking about this is a worldly context in a world that strives to live independently, the idea of being forever “needy” and dependent can be scary. However, as we look to scripture, I believe as Christians this is exactly how God intends we live: dependent on Him to meet our every need.
There are many scriptures that address God supplying physical needs, but I think of this passage in Matthew: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
– Matthew 6:25-27
The Bible also speaks of God providing our emotional needs.
Psalm 56:8: You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…”
Whether I am able to boldly approach or am struggling to go before His throne these truths I know and hope in:
- 1. He cares
- 2. He is sufficient
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