Nothing but God/ is everything

In the poem by Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven, he flees the Lord, running to anything else to meet his needs because he fears, “Lest, having Jesus, I must have nothing else.” Obviously he felt that Jesus was not enough and that he had to have something to relieve his needs and that something was better than nothing.

I have been exploring the whole issue of how my felt needs can drive me and others to sell out for short term relief and pleasure rather than long-term blessing. I have noticed, as I read and re-read the Bible and talk to struggling people, that we are like the dog that returns to our vomit or washed pigs that go back to wallowing in the mud. 2Peter2:22. The Israelites would see the pillar of cloud and fire and eat the miraculous manna and put their feet that did not swell in shoes that did not wear out and then go right ahead and build a golden calf so that they could indulge in sinful sex and fight and kill and steal from each other.

I. We have God given needs and desires.

2. The devil finds ways that seem to meet these needs without the need for us to give control over to God.

3. God calls us to cast our needs on the altar and seek him and his kingdom and his righteousness.

4. The devil whispers in our ears that God will never let our needs be met leaving us empty and lonely and that is not fair. Why did he make us with strong sex drives and than place rules on getting our needs met, rules to hard for us to keep? I remember a troubled man in the psych hospital who was yelling at God because of the bind that he was in. He did not want to leave his wife or his girlfriend but he could not have both. “God, it’s your fault, you made me this way.”

5. God says, “wait till the right time and place”

6. The devil says that that time and place will never come, so seize the moment.

Over, and Over, and Over, and Over, ad. nauseam, we ignore our higher best interest and go for immediate relief only to reap the same old wages of sin: death. Romans 6:14-25

In 1968 Stanford university did a study which showed that delaying gratification produces happiness and success, so why do we never learn?

Lets start by looking at the God given needs we all have, desperately. The needs that we are literally willing to “sell our souls” to find immediate relief. Then we will look at the things that we run to for relief and fulfillment and then look at some ideas on how to not be normal, how to let go of the world and let God be enough.

NEEDS:

1.I need to be wanted, not just needed. I love it when my dog wags her tail and just wants to be with me and do things with me. I also need that from other sentient beings.

2. I need to explore my one of a kind design and have others delight in my differences and to encourage me to develop them and use them.

3. I need to belong to a group, just because. Young men in the military find the sense of belonging to be very powerful. I need others to say, “you are ours and we are yours.”

4. I need to see how my differences contribute to the group to feel that I am needed .

5. I need to feel that my life counts now and for eternity, that my being here and what I do, makes a positive difference.

6.I need to have someone with whom I can be real, who “see” me, so that I may relax and not have to be a chameleon or put on a front.

7. I need to have a friend who sticks closer than a brother, someone who is willing to help me grow by debating and confronting me like iron sharpening iron. Proverbs 27:17 Hebrews 10:24

8. I need the strength that comes from team mates standing together to encourage each other and fend off the foes of life. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Yes, God made the needs to drive me to him and he promises me that NO trial that I ever face can overcome me, if I remember that EVERYONE goes through the same trials and God IS faithful! and will give, with the trial, a way to not sin. I Corinthians 10:13