
Strategies We Use To Satisfy Our Infinite Needs
1. We Attempt To Meet Our Personal Needs In Other People
KEY: Pressuring others to meet my infinite needs eventually accelerates the destruction of my relationships and leaves us both in greater pain than when I started applying the pressure.
2. We Try Manipulating God To Meet Our Needs
And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong - you want only what will give you pleasure. —James 4:3
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. 4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. —James 4:1-8
3. We Wrongly Look For “Things” In The World To Meet Our Personal Needs
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God. 5 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful? —James 4:4-5
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world , the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. —1 John 2:15-17
The Lust of the Flesh = Physical Pleasures
Lust of the Eyes = Selfishness
Boastful Pride Of Life = Public Recognition
Romans 16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites…[koilia]
[unbelievers] whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite… [koilia] —Philippians 3:19a
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being [koilia] will flow rivers of living water.” —John 7:38
KEY: God created us with four infinite, legitimate, personal needs, and their satisfaction can only be found in an appropriate, personal relationship with Him.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. —Philippians 4:19-20
APPLICATION
(1) Express Your Emotions Honestly
(2) Evaluate Your Emotions for Constructive Movement
(3) Pursue God Over Problem-Solving
(4) Stop The Divided Loyalty – Return Wholeheartedly To God Because His Grace Is Sufficient
Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And He (God) gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. —James 4:5-8