Needs abound everywhere you look! Quite frankly the needs are often overwhelming. We see needs in our own lives, in our families, in our church, in our community, in our country, and in our world. Some days our eyes are far more open to the needs around us than others. Whether today is one of those days for you or not, the fact remains we are in great need!
Needs manifest themselves in many ways. You don’t have to look far to see great financial needs. Many are facing physical needs of one type or another. Mental and emotional needs seem to be at an all time high. Of course the greatest needs are spiritual in nature. In fact, the greatest need every human being has is spiritual. We all need a personal relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. But today, I want us to ask a different question.
What is the greatest need of God’s people?
While the answer to this probing question may be framed in various ways, the Lord clearly led me to a passage today that continues to burn in my heart. It has been over a week since my last blog post. The reason is, my schedule has been beyond busy. While the Lord’s time has been protected and a major blessing in my life each day, I have struggled to find time to write and share a portion of His work in my own life with you for several days now. In fact, I did not plan on doing so today and really do not have time to write these words. However, two verses caught my attention so much a few moments ago that I just had to share. “I cannot help but speak…” (or write in this case).
A friend is leading an event in Tennessee this week. Last week I committed to spend a portion of my prayer time directed towards the event. In addition, the Father has lead me many times over the last week to stop what I was doing and pray for my friend and the work the Lord is doing in TN this week. Occasionally my friend has been sending out reports of what God is doing, and it is truly exciting. I just took a quick look at my email and saw a report come in and was lead to stop and read it. In the report he mentioned Psalm 80:4, which I promptly read. The Father led me to continue to read the entire Psalm, rather than just verse four. There is one verse that is repeated twice in the Psalm, word for word. It is found in verse seven and again in verse nineteen.
“Restore us, Oh LORD God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!”
As soon as I read these words in verse seven the Spirit burned them into my heart. This is exactly what we, God’s children, need today! We need the LORD to “restore us” and to “cause His face to shine.”
Too often we look to the White House, the Congress, the Courts, a political party or a political action group to “save us.” We think that if we just get the right person, persons, or party, in power our land will be healed. We often blame all the problems of this nation on others. While all the time we ignore the fact that we, the children of God, are far from Him. WE do not love Him like we should. WE do not rely on Him as we should. WE do not adjust our lives to obey Him as we should. Then we blame everyone else for the ills of this nation.
It is time that WE, the people of God, turn to Him in prayer. WE need to acknowledge our sin. WE need to entreat our Father to “restore us!” WE need to ask Him to once again “cause His face to shine ” on us! For, when He does, “we will be saved!”
Walking by Faith 