Being in need is an opportunity

The first time in my life, I asked myself a bold question during the Christmas.  That bold question was, 'Did the baby Jesus born with two hands firmly held up like ordinary babies?'  The reason I asked this question was because, in 1 Timothy 6:7, the Bible says, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”  This is similar to what we often hear in the world: ‘Come empty-handed and go empty-handed.’  Nevertheless, when we see babies are born, they hold their hands together.  And when we see them growing up and start talking, they say, “It's mine” even though no one taught them.  And as they grow older, they try harder and harder to gain something in this world.  After all, when they get old, they die and leave this world empty-handed.  Eventually, people try to gain something in this world, but I think Christian life is trying to lose things of this world.  I think the Christian life is to keep on getting rid of greed, pride, and so on.  Then, just as Jesus died with open hands on the cross, when we die, we open with both hands and die with nothing to grab.  So how should we live?

This is what the Bible 1 Timothy 6:8 says “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”  Are we contented with food and clothing, or are we discontented because we don’t have anything except food and clothing?  I think we keep on complaining and grumbling in discontentment like the Israelites in Exodus.  The Bible tells us to be content with food and clothing (v. 8), we are trying to get rich and then fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge us into ruin and destruction (v. 9).  Moreover, we are eager for money and have wandered from the faith and pierced ourselves with many griefs (v. 10).  When greed is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death (Jam. 1:15).  When I reflect myself on these words, I have a lot of food to eat, but I am guilty of throwing it (Jn. 6:12).  Also, I have so many clothes to wear so I had to donate to Goodwill.  In a word, I live and eat in abundance by God's grace.  That's why I often tell people, 'I live more than I deserve.'   Nevertheless, when I look at myself dissatisfied with the things I have and looking for other things that I don’t have, these words of God are striking my conscience.  I see myself living very pathetic.  I just need to eat and wear.  What more should I ask for.  Perhaps because of God’s abundance grace and blessings that I enjoy, there is a lot of fat attached to my heart and conscience.  Although I have to get fat spiritually and be thankful in contentment, I am getting fat physically so that I am discontented rather than contented.  So I think God is telling me to lose some weight.  I think He is instructing me to remove some fat from my heart and conscience.  I need to exercise and control my eating.  I need to eat my spiritual food, the Word of God ,well, digest it and faithfully obey it so that I can remove some fat in my heart and conscience.  Therefore, I should live a life of contentment and gratitude, focusing on what God already has given me instead of focusing what I don’t have.  I should thank God for giving me daily food and clothes that don’t wear out (Dt. 8:4).  If I have something to eat and wear, I should be grateful.  I should know that the rest is given by God’s grace as a bonus, so I should live with gratitude for His grace.

In the Bible, Ruth 1:1-5, three people who were at the crossroads of choice come out.  The first person to stand at the crossroads of choice was Elimelech.  Elimelech, who was a Jew living in Bethlehem, Judah (v. 1), was in abundance (v. 21) and was at the crossroads of choice when there was a famine in the land at the time of the judges (v. 1).  Either to live in the land of Judea where there was a famine or to move to another place that had no famine.  And his choice was to move to another place.  So he moved to Moab with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Kilion (vv. 1-2).  It seems that Elimelech didn’t plan to live in Moab for long time.  How do we know this?  We know this when we look at the phrase “for a while” (v. 1).  In other words, Elimelech moved to Moab for a while in order to escape from famine.  What was the result of his practical choice?  In Moab, he eventually lost his life.

When I think about Elimelech, who was at the crossroads of choice, he lost his life in order to keep his abundance during the famine.  In addition to this thought, I think that in God’s sovereignty He allows us to go through “famine” in our lives.  Not only that, I believe we need “famine” in our lives.  The reason is because there is God’s good, pleasing and perfect will in God’s given famine whether it is financial famine, circumstantial famine or real natural famine.  What is the will of God?  This reminds me the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15.  In that story, the prodigal son gets his share of the estate from his father and set off for a distant country (Lk. 15:12-13).  And there he squandered his wealth in wild living (v. 13).  “After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need” (v. 14).  Was it a coincidence that after the prodigal son had spent everything there was the severe famine in that whole country?  I don’t think so.  I believe that Creator God caused the severe famine in that whole country where the prodigal son was living.  The purpose was to make the prodigal son to be in need.  Why did God do so?  It was because God wanted the prodigal son to repent and return to his father.

We also need a “famine” in our lives.  We shouldn’t make a foolish choice in God's eyes where there is “famine” in our live, making the choice just to escape the crisis and to preserve our abundance.  In other words, we shouldn’t make a wrong choice by just relying on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5) rather than relying on God in order to escape the crisis in our lives.  The reason is because our wrong choice will prevent us from enjoying God's blessing in the crisis.  What is God's blessing that is hidden behind the “famine,” the crisis of our lives?  It is the blessing of repentance.  The “famine” that comes in our lives makes us to be in need and long for the arms of our abundant Heavenly Father.  And being in need causes us to rethink the abundant grace that God has bestowed in the past and make us to thank God.  But a foolish person loses his thoughts and minds in the past, longing for the rich times of the past.  But a wise person give thanks to God as he remembers when his past was abundant, and confronts reality with his grateful heart.  And he struggles to find God's will as to why this need came upon him.  He cries out to God.  And he tries to listen to the voice of God through His Word.  Then he realizes by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, like the story of the prodigal son that one of the God's will is repentance.  Therefore, he repents his sins and return to his Heavenly Father.

                Of course not all “famine” comes because of our sin.  One example is the story of Joseph in Genesis 42.  There was a famine in the land of Canaan where Joseph's father Jacob and his sons were living (Gen. 42:5).  Not only was there a famine in the land of Canaan, but there was a famine in all the other lands (as Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream) (41:54).  There was a famine in the whole land of Egypt (v. 57).  But even in this situation, there was food in all the land of Egypt (v. 55).  Due to severe famine in all the world (v. 57), Jacob, who was living in the land of Canaan, sent his sons to Egypt (42:2-3) because he heard that there was grain in Egypt (v. 1).  And as we already know, the prime minister of Egypt at that time was Joseph.  Why did God cause famine even in the abundant land of Canaan, where milk and honey were flowing?  Maybe God tried to make Joseph’s ten brothers, who tried to kill Joseph (37:20) because they hated him (v. 8) but sold him to the Ishmaelite merchants (v. 28), to repent their sins.  But what we can know for sure is that God used famine to bring Jacob and his family down to Egypt.  And in order to save and preserve their lives and the lives of their descendants (45: 5, 7), God worked, in His providence, in the life of Joseph and made him the prime minister of Egypt.  The reason why God caused famine not only in the land of Canaan where Jacob was living, but also in the land of Egypt was to move the Israelites to Egypt in God's providence and plan so that they might be fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous even though they were oppressed for about 400 years living in Egypt and then to deliver them out of Egypt through Moses and to lead them to the promised land, the land of Canaan.  In a word, the purpose of God's famine in Joseph's story is salvation rather than repentance [even though Joseph's brothers seem to repent (42:21-22)].  Isn't it amazing?  The "famine" in our lives is a good opportunity to experience God's great salvation.  Who can think of it as a good opportunity to experience God's great salvation in the ever-increasing “famine”?  Isn't that only those who fully trust in God think so?  Do you think so?

When we face the crisis of “famine” in our lives, we must make right choices according to God's will.  We should never, like Elimelech, make the wrong choice as we wish to escape the crisis and keep our abundance.  Of course, in times of need, we often don’t know what God's will is and we don’t have conviction in our hearts.  What should we do?  Although we don’t know why the "famine" has come into our lives and thus we are in need, we must believe that we are in the sovereign will of God and we must accept the "famine" of our lives by faith.  Although we don’t know whether it is God’s will for us to repent like the prodigal son, or for us to save our family members like Joseph, we must God is a good and He will carry out His sovereign will even through wrong choice like Elimelech’s.  And with that faith, we must go through our crisis of “famine” and being in need.  The reason is because being in need with God is much better than abundance without God.  Then God will give us the precious grace He has already prepared for us.   Let us win by faith!

Experiencing God's abundance in need,

Pastor James Kim