Only God Can Fulfill All Our Needs
ICS Daily Devotions
Romans 8:35,39 (NKJV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We all have needs—physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual—and it is wonderful to have a spouse to meet some of those needs. However, we need to communicate our needs to our spouse and be specific about them to have them fulfilled because our spouse is not omniscient. Most importantly, we need to know that some of our needs can never be met by our spouse because only God can fulfil them.
For example, God shows us love, kindness and mercy (Psalm 103:4). He also promises to meet all our physical needs (Matthew 6:33-34). We have total forgiveness through Jesus. Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). In other words, Christ would have died for us even if we were the only person in the world. Therefore, God gave us self-esteem. God is our covenant partner. In Christ, we have safety, love and belonging.
A person must be in Christ to feel completely secure. It has to do with knowing our identity in Him. We are complete as individuals, and we do not need another person to make us more complete. The concept of self-esteem, or self-image, is a key foundation of marriage. If a marriage partner has low self-esteem, the marriage can be strained because the person’s constant need for attention can be very emotionally draining for the spouse.
Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV) Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
We are blessed, chosen, and adopted as sons and daughters of God. We are without blame, righteous, holy, accepted, and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We have the forgiveness of sins and the riches of His grace towards us. All these belong to us in Christ and we can boast in the Lord about what He has done for us. Our resources in Christ are beyond what we can comprehend. Every Christian has what Paul speaks of in Ephesians 1:3. God cannot give us any more than He has already given us in Christ Jesus. Outside of Him, there is nothing.
Marriage is more about fulfilling the needs of our spouse than our own needs. While we should meet our spouse’s needs, ultimately, only God can fulfil all our needs.
Sermon Series: Before You Say I Do
