The Father spoke to me the other day, saying, "Do not judge my actions based on your needs." Too often, we hold against others the results we desire to see in our own lives, based on our perception of their ability to produce them. In other words, we can get offended because of a need we have that someone else isn't meeting. We look at them and we just know...they could take care of this in a second if they wanted to. Offense is not far behind this thought. And regarding offense is the death of destiny. Now, the obvious needs that spring to mind might be physical or financial things. But, as is always the case, those needs are linked to the deeper, more foundational issues of identity and maturity.
The needs we have are opportunities for us to come to know God more fully. They are the building blocks of our Christ-likeness and must be stewarded well, so that His character can be fully formed within us. This is not to imply that God doesn't use the people around us to meet our needs from time to time, just as He uses us to meet the needs of others. When He does that, however, it is not simply for the cause of fulfilling some divine welfare mandate. He strategically chooses these moments to train us in operating in His image. He teaches us how to honor and defer to one another is those places where we reflect His strength or, in a complementary way, reveal our frailties. He teaches us to humble ourselves in the asking, manifest His nature in the giving, and broadcast holy gratitude in the receiving. When He chooses to delay the answer to our perceived need, even if that means staring a potential result in the face and hearing a resounding, "No," we must realize that God may very well have orchestrated that encounter from the position of His perfect wisdom and love. He is posturing us for our next maturity leap. It may hurt - often does. But there is no mistake, we will look more like Jesus as a result of it. And those are the results we all really want.
We must continue to learn and grow in the execution of trusting Him, fully. We must shift in those "needy" moments from a "what You need to do for me" to "what are You wanting to do in me" perspective. If we will, the sharp pang of need will give way to the shimmering plume of growth and glory He has planned for us. And the next time we look in the mirror, we might just see a better reflection of His image looking back at us.
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