Need, Day 2

It is easy to get caught up in material needs and wants. With our economy the way it is, I am sure we are all figuring out the "must-have's" verses the "not-right-now's". I think with a little patience and self-control we should all come out of this okay. Maybe a little tattered and worn but we will be alright. We are overcomers, for goodness sakes...

We don't always talk about our spiritual or relational needs. Each one of us is created so differently that it would be hard to say what we all need. Life experiences certainly have a say in how we need relationships in our lives. Our passions and desires also direct us towards the things we need to fulfill our spiritual lives.

Our emotional needs lived out in the flesh of our lives can be a very unhealthy thing. Take David for example. He was a passionate man, loved God with all of his heart and served him fervently. That same passion that fueled his need for God also fueled other desires in his life and led him to adultery and murder.

Take a women who has a need to be a mother. From the day she can remember she has loved children and has given love and blessings to many. In a passionate decision, she could take that need and have a child of her own out of wedlock or even while married but not at her husbands knowledge. Her blessing could have been so much greater, and a lot less difficult, had she chosen to be patient in fulfilling the desires (needs) of her heart.

When our spiritual and relational needs are met in flesh, the outcome can be miserable. Sometimes leading us to decisions we would have otherwise never had made. God honored David throughout his life and when he came to repentance he was forgiven, although his fleshly choices still had repercussions in this world. God too will honor the women and child, fulfilling her desire for motherhood but it will not be easy. As with most of our fleshly choices we have to take responsibility in them.

Each one of us has desires and needs beyond that of food and shelter. I, for example, need to feel like I am doing "good works". Not that it accounts for anything. When I am doing my good stuff, it comes with very little fulfillment and a lot of hard work when I am doing it in flesh. When I focus on the One that lives in me and respond with my life, my fulfillment is beyond blessing.

Focus on the living water in your life that will feed and nurture your desire and needs. He, above all else, knows your needs. He knows the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:3-7
Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;