“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11).
For a variety of reasons, it makes people uncomfortable to talk about their needs and desires. What if God wants us to be clear about our needs so that we can live lives of wholeness and be available to meet others’ needs?
Unlike cultural norms of needs being met in material ways, the needs in Isaiah 58 are in the realm of emotion and connectedness. I become aware of another person’s needs when I enter into relationship with them.
The same is true with us. God seeks to be in relationship with us, to know our heart and fill our lives so that every need, every desire that seeks life-giving connection and the care of another, is met. God invites us to journey into ourselves to experience the joy that is present when we recognize our giftedness and worth, which come first and foremost from the Creator.
This message is excerpted from “Lives of wholeness” by Rozella Haydée White in the June 2018 Café online magazine.
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