When Do We Need God?

When do you need God? When do you need His grace, His help?

Many people think of God like an insurance policy. Most of us pay insurance premiums regularly.  We receive a policy annually and file it away somewhere, knowing that it is available in the event of a crisis – if our house burns down or our car crashes, or our life ends. Having such policies in case of emergency is a comfort. But day by day, we don’t even think of them.

Now, God does tell us to call upon Him in every crisis. He is indeed our Rock, our Fortress, our Strong Deliverer (see Psalm 18, especially verses 1-3, as well as numerous other Scriptures). As such, He is better than any insurance policy, for with Him there are no deductibles, no premiums, no riders, and no exclusions. No crisis will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, whether fire, hail, flooding, or acts of war – and certainly not acts of God!

But unlike insurance, we need God on our good days as well as our bad, when all is going great as well as when our world is falling apart, when we are bubbling over with joy as well as when we are in the depths of sorrow.

We need Him first because He grants us breath. As the Apostle Paul tells the Athenians, “He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). He has the right and the power to remove that breath from us at any time: “When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust” (Psalm 104:29). Our times are in His hand (Psalm 31:15); He may take my life at any moment (Luke 12:20). Thus I need His grace if I am to live out the day.

Second, we need Him constantly because every good we have – whether abilities or possessions or intelligence or perseverance or friends or family or health – is a gift from Him: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17); He “gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18 NIV); “a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven”(John 3:27). List what gives you the greatest joy. Then list what makes you special. Write beside each: “This is an undeserved gift from God.”

Finally, we need Him if we are to have true joy. Jesus tells us, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). He also says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). David exclaims, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). True life, true joy, everlasting pleasures – these are found only in God through Jesus.

So praise God that He insures us from all the dangers and troubles we might face. As the Apostle Paul writes knowing he is about to be executed, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18 NIV). Cry out to Him in every crisis, knowing that in Jesus you are secure.

But don’t file God away, waiting for a crisis to pull Him out! Rather acknowledge and delight in your need for Him every second of your life. He is the Giver – we are receivers. He is the ever-flowing fountain – we are those who drink. He is the Sustainer – we are those strengthened. Rejoice in that dependence. Be grateful towards Him. And, because of all His benefits to you, hold up your cup of salvation and ask Him to fill it again, and again, and again (Psalm 116:13).

[Scripture quotations are ESV unless otherwise indicated.]

The Foundation for a Thankful Heart

What leads to “spontaneous” gratefulness?

The middle of the night. Wakened – barely – by the sound of raindrops, I turn from my back to my side. My hand accidentally touches Beth’s shoulder. Resting it there, I pray, “Thank You, Lord, for this precious woman.”

The prayer was not the result of a logical chain of reasoning. It simply welled up within me in the moment. It was spontaneous in that sense.

However, if the same sequence of events had happened forty years ago, that prayer would not have occurred. So what has changed in me over these decades that leads my heart to thank God spontaneously?

Scripture tells us again and again that we must be grateful:

  • Psalm 52:9: “I will thank you forever.”
  • Psalm 105:1 (and seventeen other verses): “Give thanks to the LORD.”
  • Colossians 3:15: “Be thankful.”
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
  • 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God … as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.”

Why are we to be overflowing in thanksgiving to God? Because He is the source of everything good:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17).

In particular:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Yet I deserve neither good gifts nor everything needed for life and godliness. Rather, I deserve the opposite: punishment from God:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”… All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…. The wages of sin is death (Romans 3:10-12, 3:23, 6:23).

Yet in His mercy He shone the light of the Gospel in my heart, enabling me to see Jesus for Who He is (2 Corinthians 4:6); He laid my iniquity onto Jesus (Isaiah 53:6); and He therefore declared me righteous “by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

A gift! And how should we respond to gifts?

So salvation alone should lead to our giving abundant thanks to God.

Now, I understood the gift of redemption many years ago, and have thanked God for it regularly. That is the base of the foundation of “spontaneous” thanksgiving. But more layers were needed before such thanks would well up within me.

I had to see – and not only see but take to heart – that everything good in this world as well as anything good in me is the result of the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

I had to learn that apart from Him I could do nothing (John 15:5); apart from Him I could not succeed in any business or profession (Deuteronomy 8:17-18); apart from Him there are no beautiful sunsets, no glorious galaxies, no creative people; apart from Him there is no love, no hope, no joy, no peace. For the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and when we display any goodness, we are reflecting the remnants of His image in us (Genesis 1:26-27).

When, through daily encounters with the Word of God over decades, the Spirit builds these truths in our hearts on to the foundation of redemption, we then thank God spontaneously when we notice a snapdragon in bloom, a chicken pot pie in the oven, or a loving spouse next to us in the bed. Spontaneously – but not so spontaneously. For the foundation was built up over many years.

So now I remind myself every morning and at every meal: This food, this day, this breath, even the ability to move – all of these are mine only because of Jesus. So I thank You, Lord, in His Name.

Do realize – I am not yet fulfilling Ephesians 5:20, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I must continue to grow in thankfulness, to God and to others. But I can look back forty years ago and say with John Newton, “Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be– I can truly say that I am not what I once was…. ‘by the grace of God I am what I am!’” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

You too can grow in this grace. Go to the Word. Ask the Spirit to lay this foundation. Remind yourself daily of these truths. And then open your eyes! Notice His gifts! They are all around you.

What is Man that You are Mindful of Him?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

In comparison to God’s grandeur, we are nothing. We are infinitesimal. We are little specks of dust on a spinning ball.

Yet God grants us significance. He takes of His grandeur and stamps some portion on us. So David says He crowns us with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5).

Understand: That glory and honor is from Him – it is derived; it is not intrinsic to us. We have no glory, no status apart from what God has given us.

Many of history’s greatest tragedies – such as American slavery, such as the Holocaust – have come about because one category of mankind decided another category had no such status, no such glory, no such honor – they were subhuman.  But Scripture is clear: In this age, until Jesus returns, all humans have the status of image-bearers of God, no matter who they are or what they do (Genesis 1:27). Every person you encounter has this status – whatever their ethnicity, whatever their economic status, whatever their intelligence, whatever their education level, whether they live in utero or on a deathbed.

But Scripture hints that a time is coming when that will change. After Jesus returns, after the final judgment, there will be a class of humans without glory and honor, without the image of God. This class will not be racially based, nor based on intelligence, nor based on accomplishment. Rather, this class will consist of all those who continue in rebellion against their rightful King, those who are assigned to eternal punishment “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). And what will it mean for people to be away from His presence? David says, “I have no good apart from You” (Psalm 16:2). James tells us “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Thus, whatever good we have, we received from Him (1 Corinthians 4:7). Indeed, God is the source even of ability and craftsmanship (Deuteronomy 8:18, Exodus 31:3).

Imagine, then, that state: No goodness remaining; no creativity remaining; no pleasure remaining; no friendship remaining; no beauty remaining; no productive work remaining; no vocation, no fulfillment. Only pride, self-righteousness, anger, hatred, and rebellion.

To be away from the presence of God is to be without any good, without any glory, without any honor. Thus it seems that those sent away from the presence of the Lord will lose whatever remains of the image of God in them. They will then eat and devour one another for all eternity.

C.S. Lewis captures this idea in The Great Divorce. He pictures those in hell as hating each other, and thus isolating themselves more and more from each other, so that hell seems to be a huge place. But when hell is seen from the perspective of eternal realities, it is a tiny, insignificant speck.

Thus we come again to the question: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” The remains of mankind consigned to judgment – having shed all glory and honor, having lost all goodness, all ability, all creativity, and all craftsmanship – will be insignificant. God will no longer be mindful of them. But those redeemed by His grace, those credited with the righteousness of Christ, those granted significance now and forever, will shine forth with His perfected image in them for all eternity (Matthew 13:43).

In this life, no one is subhuman. All have significance. All have the vestiges of the image of God.

But we all have been granted those vestiges for a reason: To glorify Him! To display that image! So: Be astounded at the significance God grants you! Repent, and humble yourself before Him! Then join the heavenly throng, and display His character, now and forever.