our greatest need...

I've been thinking alot lately about my own neediness. About my own inadequacies and weaknesses and the verse that says, 'When I am weak, He is strong." I was asked to speak at our college/young adults group this week and we had just started a series on 'Unmasking the Lies', but I was told I didn't have to speak on that. I could choose something else, but no matter what other subjects I thought of they all came back to this. Our greatest need.

After spending a few weeks thinking and preparing I realized, more than when I started, that it's not something we think of often, or really want to. Maybe some of us do-probably in a low self-pity sort of way, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the lie that keeps us from admitting our neediness. It's a lie that says, 'I'm just fine", "I can do it on my own", "I have it all figured out", "I have it all put together". Like when someone asks you how you're doing and you answer without thinking, 'I'm good. How are you?'. It's become a greeting with no thought behind it. How often do we really take a look at our own neediness and realize that even in our American culture we cannot forget! Though we rarely need a thing on the outside, we cannot forget that we are really 'wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked'. We are nothing apart from the saving GRACE of Jesus!

John makes this statement while speaking to the church of Laeodacious in Revelations 3:17. He's not addressing the world and the unbelievers you pass on the street. He's talking to you and me and all of those sitting next to us in the chairs and pews of our churches.

"17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

In our day to day lives we so easily forget. That has to be one of the most annoying things about being human. We forget. We forget so quickly that we don't have to hide in our shame. We don't have to mask our weaknesses and insecurities. We forget that He came for us, died for us, rescued us, all while we were still sinners. Romans 5:6-8 says it best:

"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

So why is it we put the masks back on? What is it that makes us go back to our old ways that we walked in before we found grace? As unbelievers we wore a veil. A veil of pride and self-righteousness that kept us from seeing our greatnest need. (aka: Jesus) So we did everything in our own strength to find meaning in this life. We gave ourselves to a cause-serving, serving, serving. We climb the ladder of success to prove ourselves. We give up on everything all together and work to live and live to work, giving up hope and desire all together. But if you look through those all again, do they look much different from many of the believers you know?

I wish it weren't true, but amidst finding ourselves redeemed and restored to a life in Christ, we slowly but surely forget that it's a daily renewing of our mind that will remind us of our greatest need and that nothing else will satisfy our hearts aching. This is what will keep our hearts overflowing with joy at the great grace that we were so freely given. Our view of God as a dictating, pointing-finger-judge, ready to scurge us with a rebuke or someone who will use our neediness against us, is only more apparent in our weekly meetings where the majority of believers come to check something off of their list rather than lay their hearts bare before a King who is waiting with open arms and loving eyes and fellow fallen friends who want to walk with us and encourage our needy hearts.

So instead we put on our best outfit, our best game face and we say the right answers and do the right things. For the majority of my life I played basketball. I was a point guard and in high school I was also co-team captain. I'm not sure when I decide this or started doing it, but somewhere along the way I learned to put on my game face. It didn't matter the size of the players on the other team. It didn't matter their record in the past or their intimidation in the present, I was determined to put on my game face and intimidate them. It wasn't a cocky-arrogant face, but one of determination. One that showed no fear or lack of confidence in my own team, though I could be trembling inside I was determined to not show one ounce of it on the outside. And I wore it proudly.

And this to a degree is how we play our lives. We put up our defenses, our walls, our barriers to guard our heart and never show our own insecurities and weaknesses, because if others knew how far we were from what we were meant to be, would they shun us? Would they use us, abuse us, walk all over us? And somehow we have convinced ourselves that God would do the same. So we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in an effort to bring ourselves closer to Him, to gain His trust, to earn His love, to deserve His healing. To somehow make ourselves presentable to come near Him.

We have forgotten that we don't have to hide. Though the world portrays that strength, might, power, success, wealth and popularity is the cure to your needy heart, it is only a detour. When Jesus discusses the beatitudes in Matthew 5 we get the idea that our way of thinking is somehow completely skewed and way off to say the least. It's the upsidedown kingdom! And all throughout the Bible it makes little sense to our worldly, flesh-ruled minds that in the Kingdom, going low is when you are given honor. The poor in spirit inherit the kingdom. That first shall be last and last shall be first. When you're weak He is strong in you.

What would our churches look like if instead of hiding our neediness we wore it on a sign? We marveled in our weakness because we understood that was when He could shine the best! When we are weak, He is strong! His GRACE is sufficient!

Brennan Manning says it best in his book Ragamuffin Gospel, "Sooner or later we are confronted with the painful truth of our inadequacy and insufficiency. Our security is shattered and our bootstaps cut. Once the fervor has passed, weakness and infidelity appear. We discover our inabilty to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature....Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie ppoints, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of GRACE!'

Our greatest need, isn't focusing on our own inadequacy and neediness, but it is a fresh revelation and a stout drink of GRACE!