Thank God for Neediness

As you pray daily for yourself, your family, your friends, your acquaintances, and the world, do you ever feel overwhelmed at the vastness of the need around you?

I find myself pleading with the Lord day after day for the same urgent needs:

An acquaintance with inoperable cancer.

A relative with a chronic illness.

A friend with deteriorating joints.

A co-worker with financial needs.

My own addiction to sugar.

My country moving relentlessly away from the safety of God’s protection.

A world of souls, lost, and in danger of spending eternity in hell.

And every day, it’s the same needs for the same people. And every day, I feel the same desperate sense that I cannot possibly bear it if God doesn’t intervene and meet these critical needs.

Often, I remind the Lord that we are a needy people. So needy. We have illnesses and bondages and situations completely out of our control. If He doesn’t intervene, hopeless conditions and situations will just continue to deteriorate.

A Reason for Thanksgiving

As I’m writing these words, it is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2022. This morning, as I was praying yet again for persecuted Christians around the world, lost souls bound for an eternity without God, and those near and dear to me, I had the familiar feelings of urgency and desperate need. And there is a touch of hopelessness when the same prayer needs recur day after day, often with no evidence of improvement or answer to prayer.

But today, in this season of Thanksgiving, I suddenly understood why we’re such very needy people. It’s obvious, of course, but I had never thought of it as a reason for giving thanks.

Without our needs, especially our urgent needs, who among us would cling to the only One who can meet our needs? The only One who can do the impossible? The only One who loves us no matter how needy we are?

My Prayer of Thanksgiving

Father, I don’t like feeling needy. I wish I could bounce around, laying my hands on people, and they would immediately be well, be strong, be energetic, be financially stable, be whatever they need to be.

But then, oops. What would happen to our relationship with You? Without needs, would we still look to You for answers? For relief? For guidance?

Yes, a few dear saints will forever cling to You. But what about the rest of us? We would go our own ways, doing our own things. We would never pray. We would never share our vulnerabilities because we would have none. And we would grow even more vain and arrogant than we already are!

Bottom line, the fact is – the relationship’s the thing. President Clinton once said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Well, in Christendom, “It’s the relationship, saint!” You created us for the simple reason that You love us and want to walk with us in the cool of the day, enjoying fellowship with us.

So, Father, today I thank You for neediness. I thank You with all of my heart for making it crystal clear that You want a relationship with even the likes of me. And with every person who has ever lived.

Lord, in this Thanksgiving season, as I pray and yearn for answers to the needs around me, I thank You for making us needy people. I thank You for using our needs to draw us near to Your heart.

In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

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