If I could wish, for you and I, one thing that would bolster our faith and bring vitality to our Christian experience it would be a needy life. Now, of course, you are wondering why in the world I'd wish for that. I mean, would it not be better to wish for a fulfilled and completely needless life? No, I don’t think so and let me tell you why. Without needs we would go nowhere in the Christian life. You see, our neediness is the impetus for our spiritual growth and maturity. Our needs cause us to turn away from ourselves and our own resources to Christ and His resources. Our problems produce stress, which results in the neediness that drives us away from our miniscule personal resources to Christ as our infinite and all-powerful resource.
Were it not for our needs, most of us would not search out, reach out and then appropriate by faith God’s promises. And if God’s promises are never appropriated we will not become partakers of God’s divine nature. This is what 2 Peter 1:4 teaches us.
“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
God’s plan for our spiritual growth primarily utilizes our problems, struggles, and challenges to promote within us the sense of need that pushes us to search the Word of God for the promises of God. Once these promises are found and we by faith grab ahold of them and appropriate them spiritual growth occurs and presto, we find ourselves becoming more and more like Christ—who, by the way, all the promises of God find their fulfillment in (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God does not so much reveal Himself to us through philosophy and higher education as He does our needs. As J.N. Darby writes: “. . . necessity finds Him out. I doubt much if we have ever learned anything solidly except we have learnt it thus.” Therefore, perhaps it is not the most knowledgeable and articulate that make the greatest ambassadors for Christ—perhaps it is the most needy.
And while most of us equate happiness with having our needs met to the point that we have no more needs, the Bible begs to differ. Jesus, Himself, said: “Blessed (happy) are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” In other words, the happiest people are not those whose belly is full but whose spiritual belly is always hungering and thirsting for God. You see, the need of spiritual hunger and thirst drives them to God and His promises, which satisfy them. However, this satisfaction is not an end in itself. No, it is the means to greater hunger and greater thirst and thus even greater satisfaction in God.
Thus, our need for God not only produces spiritual growth, it produces spiritual satisfaction and contentment for God, which in turn glorifies Him as nothing else can. As John Piper puts it so well, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
Were it not for our needs, most of us would not search out, reach out and then appropriate by faith God’s promises. And if God’s promises are never appropriated we will not become partakers of God’s divine nature. This is what 2 Peter 1:4 teaches us.
“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
God’s plan for our spiritual growth primarily utilizes our problems, struggles, and challenges to promote within us the sense of need that pushes us to search the Word of God for the promises of God. Once these promises are found and we by faith grab ahold of them and appropriate them spiritual growth occurs and presto, we find ourselves becoming more and more like Christ—who, by the way, all the promises of God find their fulfillment in (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God does not so much reveal Himself to us through philosophy and higher education as He does our needs. As J.N. Darby writes: “. . . necessity finds Him out. I doubt much if we have ever learned anything solidly except we have learnt it thus.” Therefore, perhaps it is not the most knowledgeable and articulate that make the greatest ambassadors for Christ—perhaps it is the most needy.
And while most of us equate happiness with having our needs met to the point that we have no more needs, the Bible begs to differ. Jesus, Himself, said: “Blessed (happy) are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” In other words, the happiest people are not those whose belly is full but whose spiritual belly is always hungering and thirsting for God. You see, the need of spiritual hunger and thirst drives them to God and His promises, which satisfy them. However, this satisfaction is not an end in itself. No, it is the means to greater hunger and greater thirst and thus even greater satisfaction in God.
Thus, our need for God not only produces spiritual growth, it produces spiritual satisfaction and contentment for God, which in turn glorifies Him as nothing else can. As John Piper puts it so well, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
1 comment:
Thank you for these words that surely need to be shared.
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