Our Savior knows each of our needs, and has made loving provisions to supply them. Consider a few more of the basic needs of each member of American society:
The Need For Meaningful Friendships
We live in a society which prizes itself on its rugged individualism. While this has its advantages, it is easily carried over into isolationism. Thanks to the development of the Internet, and related technology, Americans increasingly find themselves socially detached from one another. They make their purchases online, rather than dealing with a clerk face-to-face. They frequently interact on social media, neglecting important skills of in-person communication. They increasingly purchase and consume their meals without interpersonal communication. Students engage in online studies, business people attend virtual meetings, and even some church members prefer to worship virtually, if at all.
What is happening to American friendships? They are being virtually lost. The preference among young people for texting over telephoning, for digital surveys and other anonymous reporting rather than face-to-face accountability, and the ease with which in-person encounters can be avoided, all speak to a social distancing unparalleled in history. To quote Kraft again, “Much of what we experience tends to alienate us from each other and to keep us from the warmth and support of genuine human caring. We move from place to place so often that we hold ourselves back from deep friendships. We see independence and individualism as ideal, so we turn away from relationships that require dependency or inter-dependency, lest our individualism be sacrificed therein. And in the process we often become ‘things’ to ourselves as well as to the society around us.”
But there is a friend who “sticketh closer than a brother,” (Prov. 18:24). There is, as C.B. McAfee poetically noted a “place of comfort sweet, a place where we our Savior meet: near to the heart of God.” There is a tie which binds the people of God, a place of belonging, fellowship, and status, unknown by the world. What a friend we have in Jesus!
The Need For Spiritual Answers
There are many contradictions in modern, American society. In a land which prides itself on its freedom, there are so many slaves to alcohol and other drugs, pornography, despondency, materialism and lust. In the land which boasts great tolerance, there is a stampede to be politically correct. While the culture claims to invite investigation and healthy debate, it cancels out all dissent. If your story fits the agenda it will make the news, but otherwise it will be hushed. Good is called evil, evil is called good, and still our people search for answers.
We yearn for answers, but reject the one place from which they come. I remember almost 40 years ago an atheistic law professor discounting a student’s answer in class by saying, “Yes, but then you would have to accept all that religious baggage.” Even the secularists recognize that there must be something “out there,” if they could just get a handle on what it is. Disillusioned with science so-called, many search for a spiritual reality. Like my mother-in-law, who 80 years ago would longingly gaze out the windows of her home in the dark mountains of eastern Kentucky, and imagine, “There must be something more.” There must be right answers to these questions deep within my heart.
The deepest hunger of the human heart can be satisfied by only one thing. Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled,” (Mt. 5:6). Only the word of God can answer the call for a “lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path,” (Ps. 119:105). Jesus has the answers we need.
What About You? Are you looking to the only One who can supply your every need? The deepest, most fundamental needs of safety and security, consistency and predictability, meaningful relationships and the answers to life’s important questions are all supplied by Him who gave his life for you. And He graciously offers them fully and freely. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, to supply your every need!
-by Robert C. Veil, Jr.
