In my last post, I wrote about uplifting one another as a part of moving toward unity in the church. In this post, I want to address “need”. God has placed us together in the body of Christ for many purposes, and one is to meet the needs of one another.

    

A preacher told the story of a child who wanted a bike for his birthday. When his dad would tuck him in each night for bed, they would pray together. As his birthday got closer and closer, he prayed in an extremely loud voice, “God, I really want a blue bike from Wal-Mart.” One day, his grandparents were visiting, so the father asked his son not to be so loud when he prayed. “Son, God’s not deaf and can hear you.” The little boy said, “I know, but Grandpa is, and I need him to hear me!” That kid knew that God often meets needs through the lives of other saints around us.

    

Unity becomes possible when we recognize our personal needs as well as our responsibility to meet the needs of others. These needs range from physical needs to emotional to spiritual. Sometimes we have great opportunities to help in physical ways that can include paying utility bills, providing a hot meal, giving a person a ride somewhere and many other things. Sometimes an emotional need can be met by simply sitting and listen to someone else’s troubles and encouraging them that you are simply there for them. Spiritual needs can range from praying for another person to holding them accountable to what the Scriptures claim.

    

Are we willing to pursue unity by meeting the needs of one another as described in James 2:14-17? What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.