Wednesday, November 12, 2014

See the Need, Share the Need, Meet the Need

So much of my life lately has been consumed with this:
1. Seeing needs and not knowing how to meet them.
2. Having needs but being resistant to sharing them.
3. Being able to meet needs, but not willing.

So many conversations I've had lately center around seeing needs. I know couples who need marriage support, ministries that need prayer, women who need friends (me included), men who need mentors, and families who need help raising and taking care of their children. How do we meet these needs?  How do we get others to see the needs? That's the real question. We can't meet every need we see, but someone can.

Lord please change our hearts.

How many needs do I miss? Why when there is so much uncertainty are we hesitant to share that we need prayer and encouragement? How do we as the body of Christ die to ourselves to do the work God has called us to? How can we expect others to do what we ourselves are unwilling to do?

I am guilty. I doubt, I fear, I give in to anxiety, but rarely do I share what I'm struggling with. Right now we are in the process of buying a house. We thought we were to the end. It's been incredibly stressful. I've had anxiety, worried at late hours of the night, and even had nightmares through the process. I've cried, drove by the house and said a million prayers, and only confessed to a tiny few that we are even in this process. Why? Why did we not tell right away that we were doing this- that we needed guidance and encouragement and advice? Buying a house is stressful. We thought we would be closing this Friday, but according to the call I got today at best it's happening next Thursday if at all. I was completely crushed. I've prayed through the whole process, but if I had just shared the need early on how much stress and anxiety could the prayers of others saved us? We have to share our needs. We need each others prayers. We need each others encouragement. Sometimes we need more than just encouragement and prayer- sometimes we have physical needs that could be met if only we would speak up.

If more and more people were willing to be transparent, would it make a difference?

To that end, we have to do more than see needs and share our own, we have to actually step up and meet the needs we are capable of meeting. I can't do it all, but I can do something. I can pray for someone. I can send a card. I can send a meal. I can watch a child for a short amount of time. I can listen. There are lots of things I can do, I just have to be willing to listen when the Lord says to move and take action.

What needs do you see? What needs do you have? What needs have you met? These questions are important. As the body of Christ we should be in the business of seeing and meeting needs.

Acts 20:35 "In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”

James 2:26 "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ"

Hebrews 10:24-25 " 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

What are your thoughts? What keeps us from meeting others needs? What keeps us from sharing our own needs? What is keeping us from seeing the needs of others?

I'm tired. I'm scared. I'm selfish. Lord change me.