Man's Greatest Need
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| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
Any decent psychology textbook will probably say that man's greatest physical-level needs are water, food, clothing, and shelter. To that we might add oxygen as a basic need because without sufficient oxygen we cannot breathe and will die very quickly. Perhaps the reason why few psychology texts mention oxygen as a basic human need is because we take that for granted.
Matthew 6:25-34
Our flesh responds to that word by saying that does not make any sense. Common sense tells us that we have to prepare for the future. Jesus must not have meant what He said there. We buy into the lies that the ways of God are not as pleasing or enjoyable or practical as our own ways, or else we believe that our ways are the Lord's ways. The deceitful, wicked human heart is the reason we believe such thoughts (Jeremiah 17:9). The human heart is more deceptive or crooked than anything else; it is desperately corrupt and humanly speaking, incurable. Jesus said that all evil thoughts and actions proceed out of the heart (Matthew 15:19). Although believers have trusted God for initial salvation, the sinful tendencies of the flesh still remain in us; thus we continue to vacillate between the desires of the flesh and those of the Lord Jesus. Within this battle we need to understand that we will never be satisfied until the Lord is satisfied with us. What a profound truth! David said,
I also found a blog on the internet that lists what claims to be man's greatest emotional or soulish needs: (1) certainty (including safety, security, comfort, order, consistency, and control; (2) variety; (3) significance (meaning in life); (4) love and connection; and (5) growth.
Solomon, the son of David, was given wisdom like no other. He accumulated more wealth than perhaps any other human being in the history of the world; he had almost unlimited power as king; he had the best food available; and he had 1000 wives and concubines. His fame spread throughout all nations round about. He wrote 1005 songs and spoke 3000 proverbs. Solomon is generally acknowledged as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes in what men call the Old Testament. But when he became older, he said, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
The basic theme of the Book of Ecclesiastes is that all of life and all human striving is meaningless, useless, hollow, futile, and vain if it is not rightly related to God. Only when based on God and His word is life worthwhile. The phrase "under the sun" is a key expression in the Book of Ecclesiastes, occurring 29 times; it refers to the vanity of this present world and the limits of what it offers. Many things appear to be new simply because the past is easily and quickly forgotten. The old ways of man recycle over the years and reappear in new guises. Therefore we need our eyes and ears circumcised to see and hear what the Lord has always required and still requires in these last days!
Human nature has never changed. Man throughout all of time always searches for happiness ... for that which satisfies him ... for meaning in life.
Unfortunately, all too often man looks to things that will never satisfy. Perhaps at the top of the list of things that man pursues is money or material wealth, with which he can buy anything he desires. How much is enough money? Just a little bit more.
I grew up in a Protestant Church-based home. My maternal grandmother and grandfather lived with us from before I was born until well after I finished college. My father, mother, and grandfather all had full-time jobs. Even with 3 incomes my parents almost lost their home in 1930 during the days of the Great Depression. For the first 21 years of my life I enjoyed a number of worldly successes. In addition to going to church every Sunday, I received very good grades thru high school. In 1949 I won the North Carolina State High School individual golf championship. I received a full tuition scholarship my first year (1949) at Duke University. I graduated from Duke University, magna cum laude, in 3 years, majoring in Mathematics. Then I received a full tuition scholarship at the Duke Graduate School. At that point, my life seemed to start unraveling. What followed was a series of worldly failures. I never had any real direction in my life and I do not recall anyone who tried to help point me in the proper direction.
I basically flunked out of graduate school because I stopped going to classes. After doing essentially nothing for the next 3 years I decided to enlist in the Aviation Cadet program of the Air Force. I almost resigned from that after about 6 months. In August 1957 I met a young woman named Linda at Nags Head, NC. We went out one night and only one night. Then I had to fly to Germany for my Air Force assignment as a navigator on an RB-66 aircraft. I still had no direction whatsoever in my life. So I decided that I would get married ... maybe that was my answer. So I called Linda from Germany and asked her to marry me. In December 1958 we were married. That did not solve my problem of lack of direction in my life. Instead, we had 9 years of a "bad" marriage. So I decided that having children might be the solution to my lack of direction. We had 2 children, but that was not my answer either. During those 9 years of a bad marriage I never did anything that would be called evil. I was just doing my own thing ... selfishly. I played golf every weekend and played duplicate bridge at night during the week. I left Linda at home with our 2 children. From Linda's perspective we (I should say, "I") just did not communicate. In 1964 we were transferred by the Air Force to the Northern Virginia area. My new job was in the computer field. But our marriage never got any better. At that time we were attending a Methodist church nearby, although that meant nothing to me. That was just something that "good" people were supposed to do. And I still had no real direction in my life. In the spring of 1967 Linda said she was going to divorce me. I asked her to let me first go and talk with the pastor of that Methodist church. She agreed. So I made an appointment with that pastor for the following night. I remember exactly what I said to him. I said, "I feel like my life is wasting away. Can you help me?' His response was, "No. Why don't you go talk with Jim Williams," who was also a member of that church. I knew Jim Williams by sight, but that was the extent of my knowledge of Jim. So I did nothing at the time.
About 2 weeks later one of my uncles, who lived in North Carolina, died and we went to his memorial service. It was held on August 25, 1967, in a huge Methodist Church that today would cost 150 million dollars to build. Almost 1000 people were there. At some point during that memorial service the Lord just sovereignly touched me. I cannot explain it. All I knew was that something had happened to me and I knew it was good, but I did not know at the time that it was the Lord Jesus. Neither did I tell anyone my experience at that time.
The following Sunday I drove back to our home in Northern Virginia because I had to go to work on Monday. I left my wife, Linda, and our 2 children in North Carolina because her family lived in Charlotte and my family lived in High Point, NC. All alone in our house, I remember saying to myself, "Surely this is the peace that passes all understanding." Three days later, on Wednesday, I said "I have to tell someone about this." So I called Jim Williams, who I really did not know. I must have called around the evening meal time and I could hear in the background that he and his family obviously had dinner guests. I told Jim that something good had happened to me but I did not know what it was. I asked him if he could come over to our house. He said he would be there in 10 minutes. Sure enough, in 10 minutes he knocked at our door. The two of us sat on our living room sofa. I did not know what to say except that something good had happened to me but I did not know what it was. Jim said, "I can tell you what has happened to you. You have met the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. I have been praying for you every day for a year."
From that day and continuing thru this day, the Lord has chosen to deal with me sovereignly in every respect. I have found out, experientially, that the Lord can save people all by Himself. He can heal people all by Himself, He can deliver people all by Himself, and He can reveal the true meaning of scripture all by Himself. How do I know? Because He did all those things for me within the first 6 months after He sovereignly "saved" me. I have learned from my personal experience, from the Bible, and from testimonies of literally hundreds of other believers in Christ that man's greatest need is not physical and not emotional ... it is spiritual in nature. Hindsight, I now understand that when I told that Methodist pastor that I felt like my life was wasting away, the Lord heard my cry. Now, what the Lord has done for me, He will also do for you. How do I know? because the Word of God says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
The most certain thing pertaining to us humans is that the Lord will always respond to a heartfelt cry to Him for help. It is true that if we sincerely cry out to the Lord, He will save us.
But that should never be a one-and-done event. The most mature Christian on earth as well as the unsaved person needs to always cry out to the Lord. David said,
Hindsight, I am eternally grateful for all of my failures prior to the Lord touching my life, because the Lord used those failures to help bring me to a place where I had to cry out to Him. It is also interesting that after the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended me, the Lord completely restored all of my major failures and to a greater degree than I thought possible.
Forty-some years ago, the New Testament church of which we were a part would sometimes sing the following spiritual song:
Now, if you have not yet experienced the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, you do NOT have to wait until some crisis situation arises in your life. If you see a need for the Lord, then just cry out, "Help, Lord!" If you have been walking with the Lord for 40 or 50 years, just cry out, "Help, Lord!" The Apostle Paul, who wrote about 40% of the New Testament, after 30 years of ministry prayed, "that I might know Him" (Philippians 3:10). There is no greater joy, no greater pleasure, no greater achievement, no greater purpose in life than to know the risen Lord Jesus and to walk with Him every day. As it says in Philippians 3:14, may each one of us press toward the mark [goal] for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is that prize? the Person of the Lord Himself ... Christ in you, the hope of glory.
My maternal grandmother was a wise woman whose wisdom came from the Lord, not from books. After she departed this earth I read many of the words of wisdom she had written in her Bible. One of those words was: "Lord, let me create hunger in their hearts for until they hunger they cannot be fed." How true! If we are not hungry for natural food we will probably not eat anything. Likewise, if we are not hungry for spiritual food, we will probably be content with our status quo.
I recently read that the world is facing a hunger crisis unlike anything it has seen in more than 50 years. It is estimated that 925 million people are physically hungry. Since the world population is now about 7.6 billion, that means about 1 out of every 8 people are hungry or suffer from malnutrition. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. That is a tragedy! An even more important question is, "How many people in the world are spiritually hungry? ... hungry for the bread of life?" We may never know, but I am sure it is a huge multitude. Jesus said, in John 6
Are you hungry for the Bread of Life? If so, just acknowledge your need to the Lord and ask Him to fill your cup to overflowing. He is faithful!
Matthew 6:25-34
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
[Note from that Verse that Jesus speaks of 3 of those 4 greatest needs of man.]
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
[The lilies of the field show forth a greater glory than Solomon in all of his glory. Why? because the lilies never became corrupted from their environment. Have you ever noticed that when newly planted grass first comes forth, it is always the greenest it will ever be?]
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Our flesh responds to that word by saying that does not make any sense. Common sense tells us that we have to prepare for the future. Jesus must not have meant what He said there. We buy into the lies that the ways of God are not as pleasing or enjoyable or practical as our own ways, or else we believe that our ways are the Lord's ways. The deceitful, wicked human heart is the reason we believe such thoughts (Jeremiah 17:9). The human heart is more deceptive or crooked than anything else; it is desperately corrupt and humanly speaking, incurable. Jesus said that all evil thoughts and actions proceed out of the heart (Matthew 15:19). Although believers have trusted God for initial salvation, the sinful tendencies of the flesh still remain in us; thus we continue to vacillate between the desires of the flesh and those of the Lord Jesus. Within this battle we need to understand that we will never be satisfied until the Lord is satisfied with us. What a profound truth! David said,
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Psalm 17:15
I also found a blog on the internet that lists what claims to be man's greatest emotional or soulish needs: (1) certainty (including safety, security, comfort, order, consistency, and control; (2) variety; (3) significance (meaning in life); (4) love and connection; and (5) growth.
Solomon, the son of David, was given wisdom like no other. He accumulated more wealth than perhaps any other human being in the history of the world; he had almost unlimited power as king; he had the best food available; and he had 1000 wives and concubines. His fame spread throughout all nations round about. He wrote 1005 songs and spoke 3000 proverbs. Solomon is generally acknowledged as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes in what men call the Old Testament. But when he became older, he said, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
The basic theme of the Book of Ecclesiastes is that all of life and all human striving is meaningless, useless, hollow, futile, and vain if it is not rightly related to God. Only when based on God and His word is life worthwhile. The phrase "under the sun" is a key expression in the Book of Ecclesiastes, occurring 29 times; it refers to the vanity of this present world and the limits of what it offers. Many things appear to be new simply because the past is easily and quickly forgotten. The old ways of man recycle over the years and reappear in new guises. Therefore we need our eyes and ears circumcised to see and hear what the Lord has always required and still requires in these last days!
Human nature has never changed. Man throughout all of time always searches for happiness ... for that which satisfies him ... for meaning in life.
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
Unfortunately, all too often man looks to things that will never satisfy. Perhaps at the top of the list of things that man pursues is money or material wealth, with which he can buy anything he desires. How much is enough money? Just a little bit more.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.1 Timothy 6:6-10
I grew up in a Protestant Church-based home. My maternal grandmother and grandfather lived with us from before I was born until well after I finished college. My father, mother, and grandfather all had full-time jobs. Even with 3 incomes my parents almost lost their home in 1930 during the days of the Great Depression. For the first 21 years of my life I enjoyed a number of worldly successes. In addition to going to church every Sunday, I received very good grades thru high school. In 1949 I won the North Carolina State High School individual golf championship. I received a full tuition scholarship my first year (1949) at Duke University. I graduated from Duke University, magna cum laude, in 3 years, majoring in Mathematics. Then I received a full tuition scholarship at the Duke Graduate School. At that point, my life seemed to start unraveling. What followed was a series of worldly failures. I never had any real direction in my life and I do not recall anyone who tried to help point me in the proper direction.
I basically flunked out of graduate school because I stopped going to classes. After doing essentially nothing for the next 3 years I decided to enlist in the Aviation Cadet program of the Air Force. I almost resigned from that after about 6 months. In August 1957 I met a young woman named Linda at Nags Head, NC. We went out one night and only one night. Then I had to fly to Germany for my Air Force assignment as a navigator on an RB-66 aircraft. I still had no direction whatsoever in my life. So I decided that I would get married ... maybe that was my answer. So I called Linda from Germany and asked her to marry me. In December 1958 we were married. That did not solve my problem of lack of direction in my life. Instead, we had 9 years of a "bad" marriage. So I decided that having children might be the solution to my lack of direction. We had 2 children, but that was not my answer either. During those 9 years of a bad marriage I never did anything that would be called evil. I was just doing my own thing ... selfishly. I played golf every weekend and played duplicate bridge at night during the week. I left Linda at home with our 2 children. From Linda's perspective we (I should say, "I") just did not communicate. In 1964 we were transferred by the Air Force to the Northern Virginia area. My new job was in the computer field. But our marriage never got any better. At that time we were attending a Methodist church nearby, although that meant nothing to me. That was just something that "good" people were supposed to do. And I still had no real direction in my life. In the spring of 1967 Linda said she was going to divorce me. I asked her to let me first go and talk with the pastor of that Methodist church. She agreed. So I made an appointment with that pastor for the following night. I remember exactly what I said to him. I said, "I feel like my life is wasting away. Can you help me?' His response was, "No. Why don't you go talk with Jim Williams," who was also a member of that church. I knew Jim Williams by sight, but that was the extent of my knowledge of Jim. So I did nothing at the time.
About 2 weeks later one of my uncles, who lived in North Carolina, died and we went to his memorial service. It was held on August 25, 1967, in a huge Methodist Church that today would cost 150 million dollars to build. Almost 1000 people were there. At some point during that memorial service the Lord just sovereignly touched me. I cannot explain it. All I knew was that something had happened to me and I knew it was good, but I did not know at the time that it was the Lord Jesus. Neither did I tell anyone my experience at that time.
The following Sunday I drove back to our home in Northern Virginia because I had to go to work on Monday. I left my wife, Linda, and our 2 children in North Carolina because her family lived in Charlotte and my family lived in High Point, NC. All alone in our house, I remember saying to myself, "Surely this is the peace that passes all understanding." Three days later, on Wednesday, I said "I have to tell someone about this." So I called Jim Williams, who I really did not know. I must have called around the evening meal time and I could hear in the background that he and his family obviously had dinner guests. I told Jim that something good had happened to me but I did not know what it was. I asked him if he could come over to our house. He said he would be there in 10 minutes. Sure enough, in 10 minutes he knocked at our door. The two of us sat on our living room sofa. I did not know what to say except that something good had happened to me but I did not know what it was. Jim said, "I can tell you what has happened to you. You have met the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. I have been praying for you every day for a year."
From that day and continuing thru this day, the Lord has chosen to deal with me sovereignly in every respect. I have found out, experientially, that the Lord can save people all by Himself. He can heal people all by Himself, He can deliver people all by Himself, and He can reveal the true meaning of scripture all by Himself. How do I know? Because He did all those things for me within the first 6 months after He sovereignly "saved" me. I have learned from my personal experience, from the Bible, and from testimonies of literally hundreds of other believers in Christ that man's greatest need is not physical and not emotional ... it is spiritual in nature. Hindsight, I now understand that when I told that Methodist pastor that I felt like my life was wasting away, the Lord heard my cry. Now, what the Lord has done for me, He will also do for you. How do I know? because the Word of God says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
The most certain thing pertaining to us humans is that the Lord will always respond to a heartfelt cry to Him for help. It is true that if we sincerely cry out to the Lord, He will save us.
18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them. Psalm 145:18-19
But that should never be a one-and-done event. The most mature Christian on earth as well as the unsaved person needs to always cry out to the Lord. David said,
Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Psalm 86:3
Hindsight, I am eternally grateful for all of my failures prior to the Lord touching my life, because the Lord used those failures to help bring me to a place where I had to cry out to Him. It is also interesting that after the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended me, the Lord completely restored all of my major failures and to a greater degree than I thought possible.
Forty-some years ago, the New Testament church of which we were a part would sometimes sing the following spiritual song:
Like the woman at the well I was seeking for things that could not satisfy;And then I heard my Savior speaking: "Draw from My well that never shall run dry"Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more--Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!There are millions in this world who are craving the pleasures earthly things afford;But none can match the wondrous treasure that I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.Chorus
So, my brother, if the things this world gave you leave hungers that won't pass away,My blessed Lord will come & save you, If you kneel to Him & humbly pray:
Now, if you have not yet experienced the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, you do NOT have to wait until some crisis situation arises in your life. If you see a need for the Lord, then just cry out, "Help, Lord!" If you have been walking with the Lord for 40 or 50 years, just cry out, "Help, Lord!" The Apostle Paul, who wrote about 40% of the New Testament, after 30 years of ministry prayed, "that I might know Him" (Philippians 3:10). There is no greater joy, no greater pleasure, no greater achievement, no greater purpose in life than to know the risen Lord Jesus and to walk with Him every day. As it says in Philippians 3:14, may each one of us press toward the mark [goal] for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is that prize? the Person of the Lord Himself ... Christ in you, the hope of glory.
My maternal grandmother was a wise woman whose wisdom came from the Lord, not from books. After she departed this earth I read many of the words of wisdom she had written in her Bible. One of those words was: "Lord, let me create hunger in their hearts for until they hunger they cannot be fed." How true! If we are not hungry for natural food we will probably not eat anything. Likewise, if we are not hungry for spiritual food, we will probably be content with our status quo.
I recently read that the world is facing a hunger crisis unlike anything it has seen in more than 50 years. It is estimated that 925 million people are physically hungry. Since the world population is now about 7.6 billion, that means about 1 out of every 8 people are hungry or suffer from malnutrition. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. That is a tragedy! An even more important question is, "How many people in the world are spiritually hungry? ... hungry for the bread of life?" We may never know, but I am sure it is a huge multitude. Jesus said, in John 6
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.33 For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.34 Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
Are you hungry for the Bread of Life? If so, just acknowledge your need to the Lord and ask Him to fill your cup to overflowing. He is faithful!
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