Need vs. Want

Take out the garbage, clean your room, walk the dog, make your bed, wash behind your ears, don’t pick on your brother...As a child, my list of chores seemed to go on and on. There was always a list posted for me for the things that I needed to do for the week. However, like any normal kid, I didn’t want to do those things. I would of much rather been out with my friends working on our new “Top Secret” football play.

Now there was something that I wanted to do, spend some time with my friends. I always wanted another opportunity to hang out and grow with someone. I wanted to sit down and play video games; I wanted to see just how far I could ride my bike with no hands. From that time of being a little kid, some things have changed while other aspects have remained the same.

Even to this day, if you were to place the need of doing my chores in one hand and the desire of hanging our with my friends in the other, nine times out of ten I’m going to pick my friends. Now let me ask you this question: Is your relationship with Jesus Christ based on this mindset of, “I need God in my life.” Or is it, “I want God in my life.”

We can easily get into the mindset of a “need to” relationship with God. “I need to stop lying, I need to pray more, I need to go to church more...” we have the Ten Commandments to tell us what we need to do. Yet, God did not give us the Ten Commandments so we would need to follow them; He gave us the Ten Commandments so we would “want” to follow them. He tells Moses in Deuteronomy 6:6. “These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” He gave them to us so that we would want to draw closer to Him.

Which would you accomplish in your walk of faith; I need to read the Bible more, or I want to read the Bible more? Desiring to know God is not a burden, it is a precious gift that He has offered us through His son Jesus Christ. My goal is that when it comes to God’s will for my life, that it will not be a need that goes onto the list; however, it becomes my greatest desire to make another step in knowing Him more. Paul writes in Philippians 3:8, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that i may gain Christ.”

The surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord was one a need when I was lost in sin and was without God’s grace. But now, that surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ has become my greatest desire and “want” for my life. I no longer need to serve Christ fully, I want to serve Jesus with all I’ve got!

Some things haven’t changed since I was a kid, I still want to hang out with my friends. I want to catch every opportunity I have to grow with them. When I changed my relationship with God from the “need to,” I found myself spending more time with God. I found myself in His Word more. I found myself closer to God than I’ve ever been before. How close will your “want to” carry you? God bless and I love you all!

William Widener is associate/ youth pastor at Crosspointe Fellowship Church in Kilgore.