“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4-19
Do you know that Jesus is all you need?
St. Paul reminds us as he did the Church at Philippi, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19. No one else can supply our needs, except God.
- Are you in an abusive and unhealthy relationship because are convinced you cannot live without the abusive person?
- Are you living under the weight of depression because of the loss of a loved one or the loss of a relationship? You have convinced yourself that you cannot heal from the grief, because of the mistaken belief that your life is finished due to the loss of the loved one or the relationship.
- Are suffering from serious addictions, because you do not realize that God supplies all our needs?
- Are you missing out on the opportunity to fulfill your dreams and attain your goals, because you are depending on others to pull you through or to get you connected to the right persons?
Relying on humans for the fulfillment of any of your needs or ambitions is a big exercise in futility. Did the Psalmist not tell us in Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” We should not go begging any human to do what only God can do for us. Rather we should spend that time praying about our situation. The truth is that only God our creator can supply all our needs. When we realize that God is all we need, we will no longer allow humans to control our destinies. We will live in the assurance that God will provide. When we realize that God supplies our needs, we can deal with any circumstance because it cannot have victory over us. Those who seek to hurt us do not succeed because even though they may have meant it for bad, God turns it to good. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
However, we must make a clear distinction between need and want. My observation is that most people are not satisfied with what they have in life. Most people want more money, more material assets, more titles, more power, more of this or the other. I sometimes wonder if the reason for this is that some of us were born greedy, and nothing that we have seems to satisfy us or give us contentment. There is nothing wrong with our desires for one thing or the other, however, as I said earlier, we have to distinguish between want and need.
A want is a desire of the flesh. We overeat because we feed our flesh what it wants, rather than what it needs. We end up making bad decisions, because we get caught up in what we want, rather than what is good for us. Our wants lead us astray. The truth is we have more than enough to cover our needs. We cannot live without what we need; and God is always ready, willing and able to supply all our needs, but not all our wants. James 4: 2-3 says: “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive; because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” This is straight talk from Saint James. We should look to God to supply all our needs, and not all our wants, according to his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.