Word of Encouragement (2/4/2021)

We are talking about the necessity of prayer. Yesterday, we explored the possibility that the necessity of prayer ultimately arises from God’s triune being, in whose image we are made, more so than our creaturely need! Because we are made in the image of a triune God, we are social beings. This drives us to seek communion with other human beings. But it also drives us to seek fellowship with our Maker, whose image we bear. After all, it is for our fellowship with Him that He made us moral and spiritual agents. Indeed, our need for communion with Him is more fundamental to our being and meaning of life than all other needs; it is our greatest need.

Of course, as fallen sinners, we deny this greatest need. Instead of running toward God for communion, we run away. How foolish this is! As God complained, “...my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

To say that our need for God is the greatest need is not to deny that we have other needs. Even Jesus said, “...your heavenly Father knows that you need them all”—our food, clothing, shelter, etc. But God has put eternity into man’s heart (Eccl. 3:11), which longs for, and cannot be satisfied apart from, an infinite and eternal God. Ignoring this greatest need we have and focusing on our lesser needs is like trying to fill a bucket, which has no bottom. Our heart desires to be full but it cannot be made full without the foundation of communion with God. Having rejected God, a sinner tries to fill the void of his heart with God-replacements (i.e., idols). We all know what happens. We move from one thing to another, from one person to another, hoping that the next thing or person will satisfy us and make us truly happy. But to do so is like drinking the ocean water to quench our thirst: it gives us a moment of satisfaction only to leave us with a greater thirst.

This is especially dangerous when we look to another person to make us happy. God has made us social beings and the gift of community, friendship, and love. But as wonderful as these things are, if our need for God is not satisfied, our need for one another takes on an importance of monstrous proportions. We suffocate others by demanding what no human being is made to do but God. In the name of love, we run ourselves to the ground, trying to do for our loved ones what only God can do. All the excesses of our desires and all the imbalances in our relationships arise from neglecting our greatest need for our communion with God. So, God calls us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, to seek Him above all things, and promises that “all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). This begins in our prayer, in which we engage our hearts with God’s.

‍