D. Why Did God Create Us With Needs?
The Father could have created us so that we did not need food to eat, air to breathe, or comfort when we are hurt. Yet He chose to do otherwise. Let us consider the manifold wisdom of God making us as He did.
Needs remind us of our dependency and call us to humility. Jesus revealed His total dependence on the Father when He said, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). Jesus also taught us how dependent we are on Him when He said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Since God created us to be needy, humility is prompted within us. In this state of humility, we may receive His abundant grace (James 4:6). Further- more, our journey toward being conformed to His image must include the pursuit of humility, because Jesus Himself was humble (Matthew 11:29).
Needs remind us of the Father’s loving care and call us to exercise faith. Our needs also stimulate our faith. If we did not have needs, there would be no opportunity for us to exercise faith. Scripture tells us that we were created for God’s pleasure (Revelation 4:11), but without faith, God cannot be pleased (Hebrews 11:6). It thus becomes clear that the interaction between our neediness and our faith is an essential component in fulfilling the purpose for which we were created.
If and when we admit that we have needs, we will be faced with a critical decision. Will we selfishly “take” in order to have our needs met, or will we exercise faith that we will receive from the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17)? If we are fearful of not receiving, we will be tempted to selfishly take from God and others. In attempting to take eternal life and a relation- ship with God, man exalts religious ritual and good works, thus missing the simplicity of receiving these gifts through childlike faith (Titus 3:5).
When man was created, everything he needed to survive—air, food, water—already existed. Before man needed redemption, the Savior was available in the Creator’s eternal plan. Jehovah Jireh, God the Provider, can be trusted with our needs. He alone is worthy of our faith.
Needs remind us of our worth to the Father and call us to gratitude. As we exercise faith at the point of our need, we experience the caring involvement of the One who knows everything about us yet still loves us. It was God who declared us worthy of the gift of His Son, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), but even in the face of God’s overwhelming unmerited favor, some of us are self-condemning, rejecting the available righteousness of Christ. We would do well to remember that because of His lavish grace, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Jesus reassures us of our worth in His discourse on the birds of the air and the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:25–34). Just as God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, He is ever attentive to our needs. Reflecting upon the certainty of God’s provision moves us to respond with sacrifices of praise to Him (Hebrews 13:15).
Walking in the Light of God’s Son through Frequent Encounters with Jesus (John 12:35, John 8:12).
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
God declared our infinite, unconditional worth at Calvary. Pause to allow His Spirit to overwhelm you with the wonder of His love—unmerited, unstoppable, and unlimited. Give Him thanks. His Spirit desires to empower your expression of this same love to one another. The testimony of the gospel is that your true identity is not determined by what you do. You and I could do nothing to merit being made part of His family. Pause to give our Savior praise and worship.