Why Am I So Needy?

To be human is to have limits and needs. Of the millions of inconvenient, yet sanctifying truths God has revealed through this pandemic, this specific truth has risen to the surface very abruptly and unmistakably, hasn't it? We need the benefits of Vitamin D. We need socialization and human interaction. We need to be reminded of hope, truth, and have others checking in on us. At this point and time, our dependence and neediness as humans are revealed like never before and we are blindsided. However, renouncing our self-sufficiency and depending on our Father to meet our needs every day is the way to intimate and worshipful communion with Him.

Our culture idolizes sufficiency and independence. It will do whatever it takes to try to conquer or conceal the truth of our human condition. Whenever we meet a limit or proof of our humanity, we see it as some flaw or failure. Somehow we have missed the mark or failed to function at full capacity or efficiency. However, what if true flourishing didn't come from conquering or concealing our weakness, but embracing it and living in light of it? Psalm 103 says, God "knows our frame and remembers that we are dust." He isn't surprised or disappointed with our limits and needs. He knows our condition. To blow your mind even more, He actually originally created us like this, with needs and limits. What if I told you that it is good that He made us this way?

 It's Good To Be Needy

Genesis 1-3 tells us that Adam and Eve were not independent creatures without need or want and only looked to God when they couldn't do it themselves. They depended on God to meet their physical and spiritual needs before rebellion crept into the picture. God created them needy. Neediness takes us to God. Furthermore, if He created us with these limits, then it is untrue that we only experience them because of failure. That's where believers can run into trouble. It is so easy to fall into the trap that we outgrow our spiritual neediness, or even that it's the enemy of holiness.

Somehow, we think that if we hear enough sermons, know enough tools, and walk with God long enough, then surely we should be above being dependent on God or interdependent on other believers. This couldn't be more untrue. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the body of Christ being all different members of one body that need each other to function well. In Galatians 6, Paul says that believers are supposed to "bear one another's burdens." Scripture is outlying that believers aren't supposed to function independently, but walk alongside each other and "encourage one another and build each other up" (I Thessalonians 5:11). God intended us to need our fellow brothers and sisters. This was the very problem Jesus had with the Pharisees in Luke 18. They saw and exalted themselves in their self-sufficiency. On the other hand, Mary, who was not religiously astute and mature, clung to Christ desperately and her need for Him. In John 15, Jesus affirms that believers need to continually abide and connect to him, the Vine. Believers are merely branches who need the sustenance and provision of the Vine to survive and without it could do nothing. God is not waiting on us to ‘get our act together' and become self-sufficient as a sign of spiritual maturity. To deny our neediness is actually a sign of defiance, not maturity and growth, because we are trying to be like God. We are essentially robbing Him of His glory and ability alone to meet our needs. We are instead to be wholly dependent every day and abide with Him humbly. Jesus provides the perfect example.

Jesus Needed The Father

In Luke 4, Jesus set the example of what it looks like to acknowledge human needs and cast our eyes to the All-Sufficient one. After 40 days of fasting, He was undoubtedly hungry and weary. However, when He was faced with the opportunity, he did not fall into temptation to meet his own needs. He instead responded to Satan's temptations with Scripture that God alone could provide. Acts 17:23-25 reminds us that, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."

God does not ask us to be what we are not. He understands that we are but dust, made to live in connection with fellow believers who wholly live to Him. It is good to be needy.

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