Should Christians Meet Every Need?

There’s a good chance you know someone who’s going through a difficult time. If not, take a quick scroll through your social media newsfeed or a brief listen to the national news networks, and you’ll hear of people facing horrible realities.

Just within the last few weeks, we’ve seen innocent people attacked — from Dallas, Texas, to Nice, France. Daily, I’ve found myself weary and weighed down with grief from seeing such evil and pain. Bring the scope back down to a more personal level and the scene, though not the same, still holds hurting people. A friend sharing her 5-year-old daughter has a brain tumor, another friend with an undiagnosed sickness after numerous tests taken, and my own family walking through the last days of my grandma’s life.

There is a great need, which calls for a great Savior.

It’s easy to see the needs. They are endless. As Christians, we need to remember we can never meet people’s needs, but we can  bring them to our Heavenly Father, who meets every need. It doesn’t mean we don’t pray with and for people who need it. It doesn’t mean we don’t open our wallets to help with a practical need. What it does mean is that we act as conduits and not sources. I’m not the source of true comfort or true peace, but I can be a conduit of God’s comfort and peace.

I’m not suggesting inactivity on our part as Christians.

We should be at the forefront of serving those in need, but it’s a refocusing of my proper position. Far too often, I’ve taken on a Savior complex where I think I can solve anyone and everyone’s problems. I see a need. I fill a need. All that does is burn me out because it’s not what I was made to do. I was not made to be a needs-filler. I was made to bring people in contact with Jesus. He is the one — the only one I might add — who can fully and completely meet the needs of people.

Sometimes, many times, I am that needy person. I’m the one in need. The days I feel lonely in this singleness. The days I feel shame because I responded with an attitude I shouldn’t have toward someone. The days the grief of losing someone I love takes the breath out of my lungs. I’ve tried being my own Savior. I’ve tried filling the void of my singleness with dinner dates with friends. I’ve tried covering the shame of my mistakes with excuses. I’ve tried comforting myself through a busy schedule. And ya know what? It’s all failed.

The only thing, or rather person, who hasn’t is Jesus. He’s been patiently present, waiting for me to admit my need for Him and to again relinquish control of my life. If we must do this in our own lives, I believe we must do it with the lives of others. We admit that we are not the answer to people’s deepest aches, but we can come alongside them and bring them to the ultimate Source of all we need.

Where there is weariness, the Father says, “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.”