It’s very easy for Christians to become very need driven. As life pressure blows in, we turn to God for help as his words says “Those that know their God will be strong and do exploit”. But if we don’t guard our time with the Lord, it will only be about our list of needs and wants. However, this does not mean we should not talk to God about our needs, but we must not make a big deal out of it.
While the Lord wants us to tell him all we need Him to do, He does not want our time with Him or our service for Him to be motivated by his ability to answer our prayers or meet our needs alone. He desires us to know wholeheartedly the giver of the gifts and not just focus on the gifts. And so our biggest prayer point should be to seek what is in his heart,which is; to ‘seek first’ the kingdom of God and surely every other thing will be added.
Needs come and go,and if we allow them to influence our relationship with God, we may never grow into what He has for our destiny. Also, needs can be very distracting, especially in our journey of intimacy with the Lord.
When was the last time we set aside our needs and just sought Him for who He is?
One of the ways I try to handle this is for instance, when I experience an overwhelming life situation that tries to steal my intimacy with God, I simply ask God to remove this distraction so I can focus on Him alone. I would tell Him that I want to intercede for others, but this situation is making me overwhelmed. And very often I see Him taking the need away because He sees right through my heart so let this confidence help us not to tarry on our needs but give them over to God.
God allows certain life situations to bring us closer to Him because He is keen on how we mature such that when we begin to seek Him for help or for needs to be met, we begin to realize what our real priorities are, in which God should always be the first. The maturity now entails that despite our needs we can still be at peace knowing that God will take care of them as we serve Him and help others. Then we measure our growth by how much we trust God based on our knowledge and experiences of Him.
What should drive us to spend time with God is pure love because He is bigger than our needs and what He desires for us is bigger than what we desire for ourselves–He wants us to set our affections on Him not on our needs. Because when we focus on our needs, we tend toward ‘SELF’. And when SELF has the center stage, our predominant thoughts become idols that contend for God’s place in our lives.
To be a worshiper indeed is to worship God regardless of whether He answers your needs or not. Believe that God does answer prayers,He does not just listen to them. And these should be your heart cry and desires:
To refuse to focus time with God only on my personal needs and wants.
To desire to have a time of intense worship and praise to God for who He is.
To long to seek His heart and not just His hands.
To want to do things as He instructs me from a revelation of love for me and not out of desperation for human’s wants.
Now, instead of the distractions that come from looking for these needs, let the needs drive you more into seeking God’s heart and not mine. The heart that longs to make Him priority is the heart of worship He loves. Many of our needs will evaporate when we know the God we serve. And while trusting Him for the needs, do other things for Him. That is, keep yourself useful, usable, and stay committed to His service.
