All We Have Is Need

When you look at other people, what do you see? How do you sum them up? You may judge them based on the things they have, their lifestyle, or even their appearance. Maybe you estimate them by the way they treat you. Often we think about the position that people have as the sum of their past - what they've been given, what they can afford, or what they've earned.

As we judge the world this way, we begin to think of ourselves in the same way. We fill our arms with our accomplishments, trying to carry all the success we've achieved. We grow proud. We think what we're holding is impressive. And to some people, it is! But their impressions stack up to nothing. In the end, they will not matter.

As we begin thinking that other people think highly of us, we expect God to do the same. We can imagine God looking down at us and wanting us on His team. After all, we could do a lot for Him! We might be so arrogant as to believe that sending Jesus to die was an understandable sacrifice to save us, as if we deserve saving.

Reality is much harder to swallow. The truth is that we don't deserve the love of God. We gave that up when we chased our own desire in selfishness. Yet, this darker view of our situation brightens the love of God. God loved us while we were still running in the opposite direction of Him. How great is His love!

The Apostle Paul summed this up in Romans 5:8:

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

At the end of the day, all we have is need. We come to God with nothing else. Nothing we're holding is impressive to Him, and our good works don't come close to making us worthy of His love. We can't be good enough.

This is the great love that God has showed us! Even while we can do nothing to earn His love and favor, God gives us everything. At the cross, we receive precisely what we do not deserve. Though we've lived in sin, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Though we've earned a very real death forever, we receive life through Jesus.

Jesus takes all the bad and gives us all the good. He replaces our need with relationship. All we brought was need, and we leave with God's love and acceptance unconditional.