Tuesday, August 18
Our Lord’s method of evangelism goes beyond memorized speeches and canned presentations; it is as rich and dynamic as life itself. Every day we rub shoulders with people who have all kinds of needs: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Christ is eager to meet those needs through us as we show concern for people’s loneliness, sorrow, and heartache, and as we show an interest in their joys, hopes, and dreams.
Jesus ministered to people’s felt needs so that He could ultimately meet their deepest needs. A felt need is an area of life where people already sense that they cannot solve an issue by themselves. It may be a need to quit smoking, reduce weight, get on a better diet, or reduce stress. It may be a need for food, housing, or medical care. It may be the need for counseling for the marriage or family.
An ultimate need, however, is what human beings need most — the need for a personal relationship with God and the realization that their life has eternal significance. Reconciliation with God in a broken world is our ultimate need.
Read the stories of the paralytic in Matthew 9:1-7 and the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-34. What indications do we have in both of these stories that Jesus linked physical healing with meeting the ultimate need for reconciliation with God?
The healing ministry of Christ included much more than physical and emotional healing. Jesus longed for people to experience the wholeness that sin’s brokenness had shattered. For Christ, physical healing without spiritual healing was incomplete. If God’s love motivates us to desire an individual’s physical and emotional well-being, it will also motivate us much more to desire that person’s spiritual well-being so that he or she can live life to the fullest here and through all eternity. After all, every person whom Jesus healed eventually died. Hence, their real need, above everything else, was spiritual, was it not?
What kinds of initiatives can our church take in our community to meet people’s needs and demonstrate that we really care for them? Think about the people in your community. What is your church doing to make a difference in people’s lives?
