You May Not Get ‘Wants’, But You Will Get Your ‘Needs’ From Jesus – Be Content!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:19)

There have been several things that we could not live without and had to get, only to have a couple of years pass to find out not only could we indeed live without them, but they ended up not working, or too much trouble to use, and they end up getting tossed out or given away in the futile attempt of ‘more out than in’.

One such item was the robot vacuum sweeper, or as I named it, ‘Deathbot’. ‘Deathbot’ was programmed to roam the house and go over each room to sweep up any debris it could gather and was particularly useful to go under the beds in the bedrooms or under the table in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, ‘Deathbot’ had two bad habits. The first was if I was in my office working on things like, well, this blog; it liked to ram my feet and try to eat my toes. Though unsuccessful, it still was not a great feeling to have my toes attacked by such a killing machine, and I often thought this was the likely beginning of how the Terminator started – an annoying little robot vacuum that would grow up to be a cybernetic organism capable of widespread destruction. (Hence its nickname.)

The second habit it had was it occasionally dropped its collection bin as it was making its way over the floors, usually under a bed where it took a broom to swat out and retrieve the bin, reattach it to the vacuum, and then have it repeat going over the floors. When it would lose its bin, ‘Deathbot’ would continue to go on its mission; picking up the debris, sucking it through itself and depositing back on the floor where the bin should have been.

Finally, the vacuum one day started up, left the docking/recharging station, went about 3 feet, and returned to the docking station while telling us the beater bar was stuck. I took it apart, made sure the bar was clean, freely spinning and connected to the drive mechanism and in testing it found it working. Restarting it, it repeated its initial moves out and back onto the docking station and proclaimed the beater bar error again.

We tried to use it several times after that to no avail – repeating the same error. One day, in a mood to get rid of things that were no longer useful and/or a threat to my personal wellbeing, I unplugged the docking station and took it and ‘Deathbot’ out to the garbage bin. In the days awaiting our garbage pickup, I would walk past the garbage bin to hear ‘Deathbot’ pleading to plug it back in as its battery power was low. Not wanting it to take revenge on my feet, I ignored its pleas and it eventually went the way of the garbage truck. Hopefully, it is now buried in the county landfill never to attack anyone’s toes again.

The robot vacuum was a want, not a need. We still have the upright vacuum that we manually use to clean the floors. While it serves the purpose, perhaps I’ll one day succumb to the demands of my wife to go purchase another robot vacuum that will go back and forth in the home cleaning the floors without physical energy expended. (More likely, I’ll be home in the office, and she will come home from a shopping excursion and walk in proclaiming she bought one, much to my resignation and chagrin.)

We sometimes mistake our wants and desires for needs. A vacuum is nice to have, even an upright that we have to manually use, but not necessarily needed. It is something that eases our burden greatly, though, so we convince ourselves it is needed. We often ask of God to meet those ‘wants’, and while He may bless us with what we want, He has promised to answer us according to our needs. If He gives us according to the need but not the desired want, we sometimes feel God has overlooked us or doesn’t love us because the want is left unanswered though the need was.

Fortunately, the Lord loves us unconditionally, even when we are in a whimsical mood about things like wanting a robot vacuum.  God’s greatest attribute, beyond his omnipotence and omnipresence, is His agape and infinitive love for us.  Dr. Charles Stanley once wrote that Jesus never expects us to ‘get good’ before we come to ‘get God’; Jesus knows that we can never gain righteousness or approach holiness without Him.  We will always need Him! 

As Paul writes in Philippians 4, Jesus will always meet our needs based on our situation.  Remember that your needs are not necessarily your wants.  We’ve discussed before that if you need reliable transportation to get from A to B, Jesus may not provide you with a new car but He may provide you with a good used car, or a bicycle, or a good pair of shoes.  Someone may offer you a ride, or a bus ticket.  Don’t look beyond what God may provide, or become disappointed how Jesus answers your needs. 

Paul learned to be content in having his needs met, in the perfect timing of Jesus. He may not have always been comfortable, but he knew that the Lord would take care of him, perhaps in ways he had not considered. Your needs are not always something tangible, or something addressed in a physical way.  Jesus will response to emotional needs when necessary, as well.  Whether you are laughing or grieving Jesus understands and is always with the believer. 

Some responses to our needs are corrective, to put us back on the path to righteousness when we step away from God; we must realize that sometimes we do need to be corrected and put back in place.  Some responses are supportive, to help us in a time of despair.   All of Jesus’ responses are out of His agape love for us.

Through Jesus, He will meet all of our needs!  Be aware that always in our time of need Jesus always responds, in love and in kind to what our needs are. And, sometimes, He blesses us in allowing our wants to appear, as long as they are not in opposition to His Righteousness. I’m certain there will be another robot vacuum in our future, a want that exceedingly answers a need – as long as it doesn’t try to eat my toes, I’ll be blessed!