Feb 24 2009
The Difference Between Needs and Wants
A Christian brother asked me the other day if I felt it was fair that God would provide for His people while those around us suffer during the end times. Because I’ve given this much thought I told him we would not be living lavishly. We too will live in reduced circumstances, but we will trust God for our needs.
Because we’ve been so blessed, we Americans tend to have a rather longer list of what we believe are needs than most of the rest of the world. For instance, many believe cable television is a need simply because they haven’t figured out to live without it.
True needs are these: A roof of some kind over our heads, some kind of clothes to cover us and keep us warm, bread and water to keep us from starvation. As much as we might not want to hear it, everything else goes in the wants category. Just because we haven’t lived without something doesn’t mean we can’t do it. We may find out exactly how much we can live without when the time comes, but until then, we need to practice denying ourselves.
We are bombarded by commercials, advertising that says we “need” a zillion things. And because we’ve been so blessed, we’ve all been guilty of spending money to purchase things that will soon end up on some garage sale table. But let’s look at things another way.
What if you knew that time was suddenly running out and Jesus was coming in, say–a month–how would you choose to live then? Let’s say you have one month to tell everyone you know that Jesus is coming and that they must get their hearts right and tie up the loose ends of their lives, making right the things that count. What would you be buying then? Would you live any differently than you do now? Do you care?
What would you be doing? Reading? Watching on television? I daresay we would realize there’s no more time to waste, no time or money to waste buying foolish things we can live without, and no time to ignore the truth, that those we love will face a Christless eternity unless we get busy and seek God, and pray them in, opening our mouths to speak the truth, that Jesus is coming soon.
Philippians 3:8 says this: “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
The issue here is this: If we haven’t learned to deny ourselves, grasping the difference between needs and wants, we will groan and complain, struggling to see God’s faithfulness when He has met our needs rather than our wants. And if that’s the case we will be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And we will not overcome until the end.
God needs a people who see things clearly, who are discerning, willing to line up behind Him with their whole hearts, no matter what it costs. We need to ask ourselves–Am I there yet?
I daresay few of us are. We haven’t lived as if time is short. We haven’t willingly committed to the cause of Christ. Die for the cause? We won’t even open our wallets! It’s time to examine our hearts, because in truth, time is fleeting, faster than we ever imagined.
What will you do with Jesus?
Because of His great love,
Nancy
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