*******Disclaimer******* I did not write this. This is the devotional that a lady at my church gave at a Christmas party.
DO YOU HAVE A NEEDY HEART?
~Pam Reagan~
In Matthew 9:22 Christ spoke to the woman with an issue of blood saying, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” This statement indicates that God grants victory in proportion to our willingness to trust Him, that is, our willingness to live by faith.
“Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans, and hope bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find our tiny craft of life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of our fleshly strength and self-reliance.” James McConkey
“God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise before patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say deliberately that trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.” George Mueller
“It is a great thing to learn faith: that is, simple dependence upon God. It will comfort you much to be assured that the Lord is teaching you dependence upon himself, and it is very remarkable that faith is necessary in everything. ‘The Just shall live by faith,’ not only in your circumstances but in everything.” ~J.B. Stoney
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
We are His children and we walk by faith, which means we depend totally on Him. Then why do we have so many needs in our lives? Why does God make us needy? Because God’s basic ingredient for Christian growth is need. “The reason our Father creates needs in our lives is to turn us from all that is outside of Christ, centering us in Him alone.” “Not I, but Christ.”
Our needs are invaluable because they make us spiritually hungry. Without a needy heart, we would not feed upon the the Lord Jesus Christ. “Wisdom and philosophy never found out God; He makes Himself known to us through our needs; necessity finds Him out.I doubt much if we have ever learned anything solidly except we have learnt it thus.” J.N. Darby
“Life is meant to be a succession of discoveries of our need of Christ, and with every such discovery the way is opened for a new inflow of the supply. This is the explanation of so much that we cannot otherwise understand- this plunging of us into new tests where only a fresh supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will meet our need. And as our need is met, as we prove the sufficiency of Christ to meet our inward need, so there can be a new showing forth of His glory through us.” H.F.
This brings us to our ultimate need- the need for deliverance. We are thankful for God’s forgiveness, but we need more than forgiveness, we need deliverance. Yes, God has forgiven us for what we have done; but if we are to grow in Christ, we must see our need for deliverance from who we are. This part of the Christian walk is drastic because it requires our reckoning ourselves dead; that is, the death of our old man with Christ.
We are not left to deal with the old life ourselves; it has been dealt with Christ on the cross. This is the principle which we must know and upon it we must build our lives. In other words, on the cross we died with Christ that we might live in Him. Through the crucifixion of our old man with Christ we have been made dead to sin; we have been completely freed from sin’s power; and we have been taken beyond sin’s grip. The claim of sin in over us has been nullified, but this accomplishment of God’s grace at the cross will not be realized in our life until we by faith reckon ourselves to be “dead indeed unto sin.” Sin need have no more power over us except what we grant it through unbelief, If we are alive unto sin, it is due mainly to our failure to reckon ourselves dead unto sin through the death of Christ.
Living victoriously requires faith, which is complete dependence upon God. Living by faith requires that we appropriate the death, burial , and resurrection of Christ in our daily life.
(Romans 6:2-13)
The first step to our becoming free of the old life is to know in our daily experience that we were once for all separated from that life by the crucifixion and burial of Christ. We were crucified and buried with Him. This is the ultimate in deliverance- death. The old life is not changed, but rather exchanged for and altogether new life. Our heavenly Father sees each of us as completely new in His dear Son.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passes away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who had reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ…” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
We remain the same individual while being identified with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death unto sin and His resurrection unto life. However, we aquire a new position, a new life, and a new nature in our risen Lord.
” But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” Ephesians 2:4-6
Our new position is that we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus. Our newlife is the risen Christ life, rather then the old Adamic life. Our new righteous nature in Christ is in stark contrast to the old sinful nature we inherited from Adam. Christ lives in us, not instead of us. He is the source and motivation of our victorious living.
“Our daily choices will lead us to be dominated and defeated by sin or to be freed and growing in the Lord Jesus. You cannot be neutral. ‘As new creations in Christ we no longer have to yield to indwelling sin; the Cross has freed us from its power. But we are responsible to abide in Him by faith, in order that His love and righteousness may be manifested in this needy world.” Miles J. Stanford
In other words, the Lord reveals to us our great need to abide in Him; to see ourselves as new creations in Christ and to live a life of victory because Christ is our life. The emphasis must be on life. Yes, we had to die with Christ, but it is His life that we want to share with a lost and dying world. Claim the victory over sin through the death of Christ and claim the power to love and witness to sinners through the life you have received through the resurrection of Christ. Growth in our Christian life comes from the resurrection, from seeing ourselves alive in Christ. Don’t shun the death of the Cross or you will miss the victory of a resurrected life which bears fruit for eternity. Remember that fellowship with the old life only results in sin and in chastening; however, fellowship with the Lord Jesus results in growth and in life for others.
“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ” Philippians 1:20-21
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
