Our Deepest Need

Aside from salvation, what is the deepest need of the human heart? I found one article that told me there were actually 4 deep needs: Support, Stability, Self-expression, and Significance. I agree that these are all very important human needs, emotional needs. But I think our deepest need can be summed up with a quote that I have no author for (sorry about that):

"The deepest need of the human heart is to be loved and understood for who it really is."

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly - don't you? I think it's my driving force. I have a need, a deep need, to be heard, to be understood, to be accepted for who I really am. For the real me. I'm dying to be real. To be the same person everywhere I go. Not that I'm an actress, or a fraud, or a hypocrite, or a liar... let's be honest... even on our very best day, there is an ugliness in us deep down that we don't want anyone to know about. But wouldn't it be amazing to have the fullness of life to be clear of that ugliness forever and always?! Don't you think that the deficiency of the need from this quote being met sums up the reason for so much pain, anger, hurt, and unrest? I do.

In our next verse of thanks, Jesus is giving praise to His heavenly Father for this need being met!

"So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." John 11:41

This verse is from the middle of the miraculous story of Jesus raising his beloved friend, Lazarus, from the dead. Mary and Martha's brother had been dead four days before Jesus arrived at the tomb. Deeply moved to tears, himself, Jesus used this opportunity to reveal God's glory, through this miraculous work, and give the great crowd that had gathered the opportunity to believe that He was sent by God.

I think the full text tells it best:

"Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 'Take away the stone,' he said. 'But, Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.' Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." John 11:38-42

Jesus knows. He KNOWS that His Father hears Him, knows Him, understands Him and loves Him. He knows. But we don't. As humans, with darkness in our hearts due to sin, we question, we wonder, we doubt. We, too, want to be heard by our loved ones - our parents, our spouses, our children, our peers, our bosses, our co-workers, our sub-ordinates... the list goes on and on. We long for even just one person in the world "that gets us." Right? Am I right?

The good news is - God hears us too! Oswald Chambers explains how we have this amazing gift of being heard and understood by Jesus' Father as well - Who is our Father also by adoption through the atoning blood of His one and only Son - "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:5

Prayer in the Father's Hearing

When the Son of God prays, He is mindful and consciously aware of only His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19) the Father will always hear my prayers. But I must see to it that the Son of God is exhibited in my human flesh. "...your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit..." (1 Corinthians 6:19), that is, your body is the Bethlehem of God's Son. Is the Son of God being given His opportunity to work in me? Is the direct simplicity of His life being worked out in me exactly as it was worked out in His life while here on earth? When I come into contact with the everyday occurrences of the life as an ordinary human being, is the prayer of God's eternal Son to His Father being prayed in me? Jesus says, "In that day you will ask in My name..." (John 16:26). What day does He mean? He is referring to the day when the Holy Spirit has come to me and made me one with my Lord.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied by your life, or are you exhibiting a walk of spiritual pride before Him? Never let your common sense become so prominent and forceful that it pushes the Son of God to one side. Common sense is a gift that God gave to our human nature - but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son, and we should never put our common sense on the throne. The Son always recognizes and identifies with the Father, but common sense has never yet done so and never will. Our ordinary abilities will never worship God unless they are transformed by the indwelling Son of God. We must make sure that our human flesh is kept in perfect submission to Him, allowing Him to work through it moment by moment. Are we living at such a level of human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being exhibited moment by moment in us?

Moment by moment. That's the ticket. That's about all I can handle... one moment at a time dying to myself and my stubborn pride, common sense and human nature... and allowing Him to work in me and identify with Christ and in turn His Father, who will hear my prayers and love me for me. He will fulfill my deepest need to be heard and understood and forgiven. Thank God for adopting you as His own and for hearing you and knowing you - all of you - for who you are - flaws and all - because by faith in His Son, Jesus, and repentance of your sins, your flaws are forgiven and washed clean!

Please copy and paste this beautiful song by JJ Heller into your browser and enjoy the message of God's love, "Love Me":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgGUKWiw7Wk

"And be thankful." Colossians 3:15b

Separation Anxiety

"I don't think I could take 5 nights away from you," my young son told me when considering going to summer camp for a week. I am touched, but also a bit concerned. Yes, he's my baby boy and he's a home body. He's had a difficult time separating with me from the git go. Nurseries and Early Childhood classes were quite stressful from my perspective when it came to the leaving part (and the poor teachers that were left with the screaming child). From his perspective, I suppose he just wanted to be near the one he trusts and loves - so what's the point of not being together all the time? - - his young mind might be thinking. I give him comfort, care, nurture and love. None-the-less there is a healthy limit. I do have to leave him at some point for his own good.

Jesus knew this pressure of being needed and followed and pursued. A few verses before our next verse of thanks, Jesus actually used a tactic that many of us parents have used to separate with a little less drama (to our ears and eyes - - not to those we leave our loved ones with most likely). He "withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone" (John 6:15). This pursuit of alone time is between two very well known miracles by the hands (and feet) of our Lord Jesus. On the forefront is the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (from my last post). The miracle that follows is Jesus' walking on the water. These are both faith building, proof revealing events that Jesus used to teach His disciples and His followers (that we will learn were suffering from some separation anxiety themselves).

The crowd of Jesus followers, realizing that Jesus had gone but not understanding how he had left the seashore, decided to pursue Him.

"There came other small boats from Tiberias near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?'" John 6:23 (and 24-25)

Jesus then teaches them not to seek after "food which perishes" but "food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give" (John 6:27). You see, He fed them by a miracle from His Father (grace) with food that sustains physical life. Just as, through Moses, God fed the Children of Israel in the wilderness with manna from heaven (Exodus 16:4) to sustain their physical bodies. But, here, Jesus is teaching them of the "bread of life" (John 6:35), He Himself, who is the food that endures to eternal life.

When they asked Him what they should do to receive this work from God, Jesus told them to "believe in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:29)

"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." John 6:33

God's grace cares for our physical bodies AND God's grace offers each of us the opportunity for eternal life in Heaven through faith in His Only Son, Jesus Christ.

Just like little children long to be with their parents (and sometimes suffer from separation anxiety) we long to be with our Father in heaven because He gives us comfort, care, nurture and love. He made us with that deep desire to be near Him. In His loving grace, He sent us Jesus to bridge the gap between our sin-stained lives on earth and our holy lives in heaven - the bread of life - to give life to the world that we may be near Him in eternity.

This passage in the gospel of John (6:23) is the only one to recall this small detail of the deep desire of these followers to be near Jesus. The only one to recall the thanks that Jesus gave to His Father in heaven for the multiplied loaves. I praise God for this detail remembered because it brought me to the understanding of how by faith in Jesus - the bread of life - He lives in me and draws me continually to long for my Father in heaven. I am but a little child in desperate need of the comfort and care and desire to please my Abba Father (Strong's Greek: Abba - "Father," also used as the term of tender endearment by a beloved child - i.e. in an affectionate, dependent relationship with their father; "daddy"). By that longing, He has taught me to pursue daily alone time with Him in His Word (reading the Bible) and in prayer (my coffee time with God) to build our relationship to something that I cannot live without. Here on earth and on into eternity. God has given me the gift of separation anxiety - Christ alive in me!

"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

"And be thankful." Colossians 3:15b