I Need to Need

Sam Stringer

Dec 18, 2024

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to

those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He

also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the

firstborn among many brethren.

Romans 8:28-29

What would your life be like if it weren’t for being in need? What would it look like if you

always got what you wanted, every plan went off without a hitch, you never had a health

concern, never went through grief or loss, never had an ounce of an enemy…I don’t

need to keep elaborating, but you know as well as I do that that’s what we often wake

up each day secretly (or not so secretly) hoping for. What if God wanted better for you

than your best plans? He does, and it’s part of why your life is full of needs and your list

and mine would never run short of things to pray for, be they needs of ourselves or

others.

You need to be in need. You need it because of what it does to you and for you to have

to wait on God. You need to be in need because of what need rips out of your heart,

those idols of the heart where a throne reserved for God keeps getting filled with cheap,

passing fancies. You need to not always have your prayers answered because you

need to remember that God isn’t your servant, you’re (supposed to be) His. Need

reminds us of our dependency upon God, and it’s often those times where we feel like

we’re finally seeing traction to our agendas where we inevitably find ourselves forgetting

Him.

You need to praise Him when you don’t feel like it. You need to sacrifice though you

may feel like you have nothing more to give. You need to become more like Jesus, and

all of those needs? They’re helping you conform to His image on God’s timetable.

You’re a precious work of art going through processes of transformation and you may

not feel like anything is happening but rest assured, though the tree may not feel it is

growing, it is, slowly but surely. Only God needs to be, and is, fully informed of the big

plan happening and all those little intricacies coming together to bring it about. We often

demand to know from God what we do not get to know and maybe shouldn’t know right

now. You see, trust is built in the not-knowing, not in the full-disclosure. Maybe we’re

trying to find another way to not need God when we demand answers…

Good theology should inform you that there's no such thing as anything that God can't

fix or prevent in a millisecond. Financial problems? Gone. Health concerns? Never

heard of them. Relational struggles? What? God can do anything he wants so you and I

need to ask this: why has he chosen to permit these needs to be existent in our lives?

He may not fix them today. He may not fix them tomorrow or next week, next year or until the day we die. If He doesn't, remember that His wisdom is guiding not only the

provisions but also the needs. Sometimes you and I need resources and sometimes we

need needs. God cultivates dependence, worship, purity, appreciation, friendships,

closes doors and opens them and so forth all through the season of need. Need is a

friend that nobody wants when it shows up, but over time may realize just how glad they

were it came into their life.

When it's all said and done, it'll all make sense. It may not until then but rest assured

that He is working and working all for your good and His glory. Need, sometimes as

simple as a hot meal, has proven many times to be a door by which a soul seeking food

ended up finding Jesus. Sometimes it fixed something that was broken and was never

going to get fixed any other way than living in a desperate season. Need is not your

enemy ; in the guidance of God, it may be your redemption. All things are for good to

those that love Him, to those that are called according to His purpose. Be brave. Be

blessed. Pray for God to help you through your needs, but pray that He helps you not

overlook or dismiss the value of being in need, too.

If you want to read a bit more, here’s a poem for you to contemplate. I wrote it while

sitting in a tire repair shop, calming down the morning after my wife’s unintentional

driving over a tool that someone dropped in our garage…

"I Need to Need"

I need to need

'Cause I've got this greed

That just makes me hate

To ever have to wait

So I try to berate

What God puts on my plate

Since I have a real knack

For focusing on lack

Worries causing weights

That throw out my back

Life gets more rough

When I gripe at this stuff

That God says I need

To change what I bleed-

That character that comes out

His praise for which I'll shout

You see, the process unfolds

When my resources grow cold

It's then I cry out to God

To fix the path I trod

But He knows that which I do not

Heaven's directions are not what I thought

For He knows the path and He has the plan

To take a mortal child

And make him an eternal man.

Sam Stringer