“Oh, the Father is so wonderfully sovereign. He sets us up to desperately need the answer He longs to give. Otherwise we will never seek and never knock!”
Martha, “The Secret of Living Life”
I don’t like to desperately need anything or anyone. I like loving and being loved, but being needy? A desperate need, no less? That’s a really uncomfortable place to be, and I really struggled (and still struggle) with God’s orchestration of that condition in my life. Why is this necessary?
My Desperate Need is My Unseen Reality
[As for me] I am poor and needy, yet the Lord takes thought and plans for me. You are my Help and my Deliverer. O my God, do not tarry!
Psalm 40:17 AMPC
Because I am blessed with a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food on my table, and too many other marvelous provisions to name here, I can very easily lose sight of my need. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. If the Lord didn’t so faithfully bring me face to face with my need, I could distract myself from its truth pretty successfully. But reality is reality, whether I see it or not. My permanent state on this earth is one of desperate need. As David acknowledged, “I am poor and needy.”
In the reality of my need, I am in right relation to God. He is my Father, my Adonai. And when I step into that reality, I move towards Him, the only Source for all I really need. Steeped in need, I do more than ask, I seek. And steeped in desperate need, I knock. I cry out and pursue and bang on the door. In my desperate need, the impudence of a child is easy because it’s that or perish.
My Desperate Need Demolishes Obstacles of Pride
My pride and independence throws up obstacles to fellowship with the Lord, and those have to be exposed and torn down. Need exposes the obstacles, but desperate need obliterates them.
The gift of free will makes relationship with Jesus Christ such a grand adventure! It also makes acknowledging my need necessary for heart to heart intimacy. When I am in the reality of desperate need and God’s provision comes, I am primed to experience – to receive – a deeper measure of His love. And that LOVE is the root of every desperate need I’ll ever have. I need God’s love desperately. I am designed to need it! Our Father’s LOVE is so vast and His purpose so unstoppable. He does all that He can, within the bounds of free will, to bring us into that LOVE—including make us quite desperate.
Look at the birds in the sky. They never sow nor reap nor store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you much more valuable to Him than they are?
Matthew 6:26 PHILLIPS
“LOVE is the root of every desperate need I’ll ever have. I need God’s love desperately. I am designed to need it!” A big “Oh my!” to that, Jennifer. Thankful as I am for the privileges of being God’s girl, I am so tired of hearing the mantra that we are accepted, forgiven and secure. True as it is (and still unfathomable to me), you’re right — what about needy? If I’m all that (accepted, etc.), what do I need Him for? You named it: I need His love that makes me desperate enough to experience heart to heart intimacy.… Read more »
Oh, Jennifer! I needed just this word today! Thank you for reminding me of the reality of my desperate neediness! Thank you for reminding me that it’s in facing my desperation that I have opportunity to come face to face with my Adonai and His Love, which is THE REALITY that will answer and allay my desperation! Bless you for yielding to Him.