Introduction:
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 34:4
When I was a teen, this verse was my most favourite verse in the bible (it still is). And the reason was because of the assurance that the bible gives about fulfilling my heart’s desire. But as time passed, and when I actually started seeing the real world, I was starting to doubt this verse. I had a lot in my heart that I desired, and trust me not one came to reality. And that made me upset. I wasn’t even sure if these verses are actually true or not! to be clear, I felt betrayed by God!! And I know many of you may have been through such similar situations where your trusted God with your heart’s desire, and it never happened.
The difference:
Often times we get entangled between the meaning of wants and needs. In fact, if you google it out, wants and needs are synonym to each other. This is how these words are being used in this world. But when it comes to spirituality of each individual, we will have to get more deeper and understand the true meaning of wants as well as needs.
Like I said, I had my own confusion with the wants and needs. We see in the New Testament, we see miracles done by Jesus Christ. But the one thing that was common in most of them was, the need. Yes!! Jesus performed miracles to those who were in need, and not to those who were in want. To be more precise, let’s take an three example. The blind man who Jesus healed. This blind man’s want and need were the same. He wanted as well as needed that his eye sight be restored. And he was healed!!(Read Mark 8: 21 – 25) Whereas when Jesus fed the 5000 men, I don’t remember anyone of them complaining about not having food. Instead, it was Jesus’ disciples who requested Jesus to send them away so that they can buy food for themselves. People were eager to listen to Jesus’ teaching and so they lost the track of time and didn’t realise it was late. Obviously, we all need food and so Jesus realising their need performed the miracle and fed them. (Read Matthew 14: 13 – 21).
But remember the time when a rich young man came to Jesus to inherit Eternal Life. Now there we can see, to enter the Kingdom of God, the need was to sell all his belongings and follow Christ. But his heart was on his wealth. He wanted that wealth and therefore, he couldn’t get to the Lord’s Kingdom. Jesus knew what he needed, but this young man wanted something else. (Read Luke 18: 18 – 29)
Explanation:
We try to align our wants with our needs. We convince ourselves that if we get our wants, everything will end up good and merry. We desire for good job, wealth, good health, huge salaries and many more. Our wants are endless and when one is fulfilled, we want more. But we failed to understand our real needs. We see many celebrities, having all that they desired for; the fame, money, success, luxurious life, everything, but they fail to understand the difference between their needs and their wants and thus end up in a misery. Many of them commit suicide because after getting all that they wanted, they still don’t have what is actually needed. And they don’t even know where and how to find it. They don’t understand the fact that, its Jesus that we all need to lead a beautiful life.
Even us, being Christians, knowing Jesus, many a times we fail to understand this truth and seek for worldly desires. We leave Christ, whom we need, for Sundays and for the rest of the days of the week, we run behind things that we want.
Conclusion:
So, brothers and sisters, it’s time for us to know the difference. Satan may manipulate us and play with words, convincing us that wants and needs are the same. But we need to realise that our needs are what matters and wants are useless. We need to understand that all we need is Jesus Christ in our lives. And when He is in there, no matter what is the situation, He has got your back!!
