You Have Need of ...

³²But be ever mindful of the days gone by in which, after you were first spiritually enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle,
    ³³Sometimes being yourselves a gazingstock, publicly exposed to insults and abuse and distress, and sometimes claiming fellowship and making common cause with others who were so treated.
    ³⁴For you did sympathize and suffer along with those who were imprisoned, and you bore cheerfully the plundering of your belongings and the confiscation of your property, in the knowledge and consciousness that you yourselves had a better and lasting possession.
    ³⁵Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward.
    ³⁶For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and ^[e]carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.  Hebrews 10: 32- 36 (AMP)

Let me beginning by apologizing for the lateness of this blog.  For the past two-plus weeks, the Ford family has been battling some form of sickness or other.  For the past three days, it's been some sort of stomach bug.  My days have been mostly filled with teaching English by day and helping my still-recovering wife at night with the routine of home: baths, meals, homework, etc.  That hasn't left much time for blogging, but God, in His everpresent wisdom and sovereignty, knew what He wanted me to write about, and I think He allowed me a few more days to contemplate on it and pray about it.

What do you need right now?  Oh, I know, with Christmas just around the corner, we all have lots of "needs": an iPad, a Kindle, a new pair of hip waders, Gore-Tex hunting boots, a North Face Denali jacket.  Ok, only joking.  You may have a legitimate need for any of those, but most would probably classify those as wants.  Mandee and I were having a conversation the other day about Christmas shopping and she was asking what I would like to have for Christmas.  I told her this may be a true Christmas of "needs, not wants" for me.  I'm at the point where many of the socks I've had for the last five or six years are wearing out, some of my sweaters are looking a little frayed, and even some of my faded jeans are a little extra faded.  Yes, this may be the Christmas of the practical gift, at least for anyone purchasing something for me.  With this in mind, I began thinking about how, as a child, I usually got most of my wants at Christmas, and I don't remember having many needs.  My wants that I received ranged from a new bicycyle when I was eight to an Atari 2600 when I was ten or eleven.  I don't remember really needing new clothes or shoes because those always seemed to be there. I just can't recall a Christmas when I was in desparate need.  I just now, as an adult, am realizing how blessed I was to have all the things I had growing up. 

I think sometimes, though, if we are always used to getting our wants met, we forget the things we most desperately need.  We take for granted that they will always be there.  God has been taking me on a spiritual journey the past few months and showing me what I really and truly need: patience, humility, the faith and ability to give Him more and more control in my life, a servant's heart (on a more continual basis, not just for the few days following a sermon or Bible study on serving).  In the above passage from Hebrews, the author is recognizing the types of people these Hebrew believers were: they were spiritually enlightened; they had endured struggles in which they were publicly insulted, abused,  and distressed, and  had continued on despite this, even having fellowship with others in the same situations; they suffered and sympathized with those in prison; and they had cheerfully endured having their possessions searched and confiscated, because they knew their great and lasting reward was elsewhere.  Despite all these suffering and battle-tested saints had endured, the author still tells them "You have need of steadfast patience and endurance".  He tells them  they need these qualities for two reasons: 1. So they can perform and fully accomplish the will of God; 2. So they can receive, carry away, and enjoy to the full that which is promised. 

You may be able to identify with the Hebrew believers.  You may have had a rough year, one perhaps even riddled with insults, distress and  (the Lord forbid), even abuse.  On the other hand, you may have had the best year of your life personally, financially, and even spiritually.  But again I ask you, what do you have need of? Henry David Thoreau is quoted as saying "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still in them."  What are you desperate for?  Once the new Christmas gifts have been unwrapped and tinkered with, or taken out to the lake, the field, the tool shed, or the office for the first few times, what do you still need?  It won't be found at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Bass Pro, Amazon, or your wireless store, but here, in the words of Jesus:

⁷Keep on asking and it will be given you;  keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.
    ⁸For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.
    ⁹Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone?
    ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent?
    ¹¹If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him! Matthew 7: 7 -11 (AMP)

Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are the best gift-giver.  First, you gave us your Son, then your Holy Spirit, then your word, and now all things that are necessary to be godly and to live the lives that You desire.  May we know we can come to you with our wants.  As a loving Father, you will guide us in determining which wants are "advantageous" and which are not.  Always, always, always, You will give us what we have need of, if we will seek for it.  Don't let us go on desperately, headed to the grave with something inside us we were supposed to let out, but let us live to the full in You, as we see you meeing every need we have.  In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.