My Needs and Faith in My Shepherd

We are too close to our need to really know what our actual needs are. We can be deafened by the emphatic screaming of emotions regarding our need. Needs, perceived or real, are very loud in their demands. Yet self-diagnosis and self-fulfillment is a downward spiral of futility. I have learned that living based on the urgency of need cause me to be only a fireman extinguishing fires. Whereas God, on the other hand, knows my actual needs: physical, emotional, spiritual, and the list goes on. As my Shepherd, God has to define, as well as fulfill, my needs.

Faith Pleases God

This position feels very vulnerable and in it we have to utterly trust His shepherding hands. Though He is worthy of our trust, in the middle of a need cyclone we can spin out of control. This response is fear based and brings no pleasure to God or peace to me. Only faith brings our faithful Shepherd pleasure, and it is through this faith that I am satisfied.

I would think that I at least could define my OWN needs…not so much. Even our needs have to be defined. We, by nature, are pastoral creatures who each need to be kept. As we remain kept, we find stillness, peace, and satisfaction as sheep of His pasture. Jesus Himself displayed this before us. Yes, the Son of God was kept.

Being Kept in My Needs

One day the disciples logically assumed Christ was hungry for food. He hadn’t eaten in a while and had been working all day. The disciples thought, “Dude, You must be famished!” He responded, “I have food you know not of, My food is to do the will of My Father.” This is huge ­– and proof that the Father has to define even our needs. Our hunger is satisfied in His will, whether with food, fellowship, or whatever He defines as my need. He takes it on Himself to feed me with what will satisfy and fulfill.

Jesus said to them, My food (nourishment) is to do the will (pleasure) of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish and completely finish His work.
John 4:34 AMP

This doesn’t mean I have to lie around like a man in a hospital bed. Nor does it mean I shouldn’t ask Him for the needs on my heart. But God meets our needs in a totally natural way. As I live in the flow of the Spirit, my supply comes. He addresses all that I need and all that concerns me. It isn’t a law; it is relational. He is my Father.

But my God shall abundantly supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 DARBY