Have you ever wondered what is it that you need the most? This is a question we can all answer differently each new day. Sometimes I think what I need the most is comfort, peace, rest, fulfillment, good health, friends, respect, a good laugh, affirmation, space, self-control, freedom, God’s presence, His Word, or even clarity of mind. What would your own list look like?
Recently I was reading the 130th chapter of the book of Psalms. In this Psalm, I was reminded of some key realities we constantly need: God’s attentiveness to us, forgiveness, steadfast love and redemption.
Can you see the importance each one of these have? As a created, fragile being, I need the attentiveness of my Creator who is able to address my deepest concerns and needs. As a broken human being who is prone to choose life outside of God and wrongly impact other people through my choices or responses, I need forgiveness that restores me to God and others. As a dependent creature who looks for significance, acceptance and purpose, I need the steadfast love that only God can offer me. And as a person whose default mode is to be self-focused, self-guided and self-fulfilled, I need a redeemer. All these realities make the more sense when I recognized that my current address is a world that is broken and decaying (Romans 8:21).
Furthermore, how vulnerable do we become when we don’t experience these realities in God? If I relinquish God’s attentiveness to me, His forgiveness, His steadfast love and His redemption, I am quickly prone to look for substitutes that follow my own interpretation, strategies and imaginations.
So for today, may God help us interact with his attentiveness to us; may God help us live honestly before Him and others so we can practice confession and the need to ask for forgiveness; may God help us be rooted in His steadfast love so we can see everything through the unfailing, present and merciful love of God; and may God help us to bring our brokenness to Him and collaborate with His transformative work in our lives.
“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.” (Psalm 130:5)
