And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:19 (NLT)
In a crazy research paper published in 1943, a dude named Maslow wrote about the five basic elements that satisfy all needs of humans. While it’s very basic, it does make a lot of sense. Those five human needs are: Health, Safety, Belonging, Value, and Mission. (Full disclosure, he named these something else, but I’ve renamed them to fit our 21st century language.) His argument is that if a person has all of these needs met, then they will live a very fulfilling life. If they do not, they will suffer from things like anxiety, distress, bad health, and a million other things which can go wrong in life.
While people search far and wide for the things which will meet every one of those needs, our verse today tells us to stop looking. Instead, we need to realize that the source to fulfill every one of those needs isn’t a thing, it’s a being. The apostle Paul put it like this, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” In other words, when we fully integrate Christ into our lives, all of our needs will be met.
So, how is that possible? Well, the Bible tells us a lot about health – how we should eat, rest, pray, etc. – so that we will have strong bodies and live long lives. The Bible describes Jesus as the mightiest warrior in the universe who gives us protection in this life, but ultimately all the way into eternity. He’s so powerful He even defeated the grave. Jesus gave us the gift of His body, the church, so that we may have a feeling of belonging. He gave us a family. To demonstrate how much value each one of us has, the God of the universe became human, suffered, and died to pay for our sins. Why? Because to Him, we are priceless. Finally, Jesus gave us a sense of purpose in life, a calling. It’s called the Great Commission (Matt. 28-18-20) which tells us to help others find the source of all these things. Our purpose is to help others discover the health, safety, belonging, value, and identity which is found in Jesus.
Today, and every day, give thanks to Jesus for meeting your needs. Praise Him for the amazing things He does and will do for you. Then, encourage others to find Him too.
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