Needs
In church last night, we listened to the testimony of a couple I recently met at morning prayer. They are from another country and it is not easy (big understatement) to be a Christian in their part of the world. For their protection, I won't mention their names or what part of the world they live in. Our church supports their ministry in such a quiet way that I had never even heard their names prior to this visit. I learned last night that we partner with other Christians all over the world in this same way. Listening not only to this couple and to members of our congregation who have done missionary work, I had, for the first time ever, a tugging on my heart toward missions. I can't even begin to describe to you the impact this couple had on me. Their hearts, their dedication to Christ, and their enthusiasm for the work of the Lord was compelling. I have never made sacrifices like they have made for their faith.
Listening to the challenges they face, I thought about needs. What truly are our needs in life? I thought about a guy named Abraham Maslow, whom I learned about in college while studying psychology. He popularized the concept of psychological needs. And his self-actualization theory suggested that we have, at birth, a hierarchy of needs. According to his theory, the most basic needs are biological and safety needs. Only when these needs are met can we move up to satisfy our basic psychological needs. These psychological needs would be for belonging and love, the need for esteem from other people, and the need for self-esteem. A deficiency or being deprived of these satisfactions or needs leads to neurosis according to Maslow.
In the book I recently read, "When People are Big and God is Small," the author refers to Maslow. I'm sure that's why my mind went to him last night. Welch writes, "To these essentials can be added one further characteristic of psychological need or dificit theories: they are distinctly American. Need theories can thrive only in a context where the emphasis is on the individual rather than the community and where consumption is a way of life...If you exalt the individual and make emotions the path to truth, then whatever you feel most strongly will be considered both good and necessary for growth. Whatever you feel most strongly are seen as your God-given needs. That is why the unpardonable sin in today's culture is to either 'deny' or suppress your emotions. Emotions point to needs, and to deny your needs is to deny something God-given and God-like."
What drives Christians like the ones I had the privilege of listening to last night are the needs of others and not the needs of self. They live in the fear of God and not in the fear of man.
Seeking to have our emotional and psychological needs met by other people is a pit. It will increase our fear of man because the one who has the power to withhold what we need controls us. I am learning this slowly but surely. But it seems that God has been focusing my thoughts on this more than ever before and I'm experiencing growth in this area. Thank you, Lord! The fear of man keeps us in bondage. Deliverance from bondage to psychological needs brings freedom.
Welch goes on to explain in his book that "If I stand before [Christ] as a cup waiting to be filled with psychological satisfaction, I will never feel quite full. Why? First, because my lusts are boundless; by their very nature, they can't be filled. Second, because Jesus does not intend to satisfy my selfish desires. Instead, he intends to break the cup of psychological need (lusts), not fill it...To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness, in our lives...Now I understand what held me in the fear of man, even though I knew the gospel well. Not only did I need to grow in the fear of the Lord; I also needed to repent. My felt needs, desires, or lusts were big. They were so big that I looked to everybody to fill them, both God and other people. I feared other people because people were big, my desires were even bigger, and God was small.
The main reason why there is an epidemic of emptiness is that we have created and multiplied our needs, not God...We forget that we must repent of our self-centered desires. Without repentance, our desires remain the focal point instead of God's glory."
In a subsequent chapter, Welch writes about delighting in the God who fills us. Especially meaningful to me this morning, after listening to the testimony of Christians who are too engaged in the work of the Lord to focus on their psychological needs was this paragraph:
The path of God's love is not without suffering. In fact, those who love more will suffer more. Yet the path of God's love is a path that leaves us overflowing. Our cup cannot contain what God bestows on us. It is only natural, then, that the comfort we received from Christ will overflow into the lives of other people (2 Cor. 1:3-7). Our goal is to love people more than need them. We are overflowing pitchers, not leaky cups.
Listening to the challenges they face, I thought about needs. What truly are our needs in life? I thought about a guy named Abraham Maslow, whom I learned about in college while studying psychology. He popularized the concept of psychological needs. And his self-actualization theory suggested that we have, at birth, a hierarchy of needs. According to his theory, the most basic needs are biological and safety needs. Only when these needs are met can we move up to satisfy our basic psychological needs. These psychological needs would be for belonging and love, the need for esteem from other people, and the need for self-esteem. A deficiency or being deprived of these satisfactions or needs leads to neurosis according to Maslow.
In the book I recently read, "When People are Big and God is Small," the author refers to Maslow. I'm sure that's why my mind went to him last night. Welch writes, "To these essentials can be added one further characteristic of psychological need or dificit theories: they are distinctly American. Need theories can thrive only in a context where the emphasis is on the individual rather than the community and where consumption is a way of life...If you exalt the individual and make emotions the path to truth, then whatever you feel most strongly will be considered both good and necessary for growth. Whatever you feel most strongly are seen as your God-given needs. That is why the unpardonable sin in today's culture is to either 'deny' or suppress your emotions. Emotions point to needs, and to deny your needs is to deny something God-given and God-like."
What drives Christians like the ones I had the privilege of listening to last night are the needs of others and not the needs of self. They live in the fear of God and not in the fear of man.
Seeking to have our emotional and psychological needs met by other people is a pit. It will increase our fear of man because the one who has the power to withhold what we need controls us. I am learning this slowly but surely. But it seems that God has been focusing my thoughts on this more than ever before and I'm experiencing growth in this area. Thank you, Lord! The fear of man keeps us in bondage. Deliverance from bondage to psychological needs brings freedom.
Welch goes on to explain in his book that "If I stand before [Christ] as a cup waiting to be filled with psychological satisfaction, I will never feel quite full. Why? First, because my lusts are boundless; by their very nature, they can't be filled. Second, because Jesus does not intend to satisfy my selfish desires. Instead, he intends to break the cup of psychological need (lusts), not fill it...To look to Christ to meet our perceived psychological needs is to Christianize our lusts. We are asking God to give us what we want, so we can feel better about ourselves, or so we can have more happiness, not holiness, in our lives...Now I understand what held me in the fear of man, even though I knew the gospel well. Not only did I need to grow in the fear of the Lord; I also needed to repent. My felt needs, desires, or lusts were big. They were so big that I looked to everybody to fill them, both God and other people. I feared other people because people were big, my desires were even bigger, and God was small.
The main reason why there is an epidemic of emptiness is that we have created and multiplied our needs, not God...We forget that we must repent of our self-centered desires. Without repentance, our desires remain the focal point instead of God's glory."
In a subsequent chapter, Welch writes about delighting in the God who fills us. Especially meaningful to me this morning, after listening to the testimony of Christians who are too engaged in the work of the Lord to focus on their psychological needs was this paragraph:
The path of God's love is not without suffering. In fact, those who love more will suffer more. Yet the path of God's love is a path that leaves us overflowing. Our cup cannot contain what God bestows on us. It is only natural, then, that the comfort we received from Christ will overflow into the lives of other people (2 Cor. 1:3-7). Our goal is to love people more than need them. We are overflowing pitchers, not leaky cups.
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