Meeting and Exceeding Our Needs (and Expectations)
Student Services: Salt and Light
By Brent Davis
Do you have a plan for meeting your needs? Whether they are plans for lunch or plans for retirement, I am sure you do. Ideally, we don’t want to just get by, we want to be successful, to exceed our needs (or expectations). When a company wants to provide a new product to meet a need, it goes through the design cycle. We need a design cycle for our lives, but lives are more complex than inventing a more amazing toaster. So, we need a better design cycle—a divine design cycle. The Bible calls this divine design cycle seeking the Kingdom of Heaven.
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6: 33)
Three things are immediately clear if we want to exceed expectations for a successful life: we need to prioritize, clarify, and live righteously. Most important things in life require focus—setting priorities. Right now, if you are a student, you are probably focusing on your studies. Seeking the Kingdom of God will actually help you do that better because that is one of the things you need and seeking the Kingdom is the divine design cycle in action.
Perhaps that seems counter intuitive. In a complex world, sometimes the correct focus is not always the most obvious one. Let me quickly add that there is no guarantee that if you focus on ‘spiritual’ stuff you will pass all your classes. I am not saying something that simple. Sadly, I have seen some good people in our ministry struggle academically.
To correctly focus on the Kingdom of God, we need to clarify what it is (and how it works). The Kingdom of God is living life under God’s rule and interacting with God, other people, and the earth in a wholistic and wholesome manner. The Kingdom of God is a (complex) system that produces success as measured by God’s standard of success—abundant life (John 10: 10). You are probably familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The Bible would define what Maslow calls ‘self-esteem needs’ differently but otherwise Maslow’s classification of needs is a good place to start. Some people think that the Bible is only interested in ‘spiritual needs’ whatever those might be, but the Kingdom of God is about all your needs. It is wholistic.
Our needs should drive us to seek the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is where God’s grace meets our needs (Hebrews 4: 16; 1 Corinthians 4: 20), and we receive the abundant life (John 10: 10). God’s grace comes to us through spiritual disciplines and His gifts of creation and the church. If we want God’s grace we must seek humbly (Prov. 3: 34 cf. Cloud & Townsend, 1995, p. 22). Clearly, we seek grace by asking through prayer. I would also include counseling with a mature, gifted believer (or listening to sermons on the topic), and Bible study. While some if this should be done alone, it is very important to be part of a small group of believers doing life on life (more about this in the section on shining below). If you have more of a physical need, the gifts of creation can also be the grace of God. For example, God created salicylate-containing plants from which we derive aspirin (Miner & Hoffhines, 2007). One way to think of the means of grace is figs, friends, and faith. In the Old Testament the picture of a life where all your needs have been met was of sitting under your own fig tree (Zechariah 3: 10). God often works through people like friends (Acts 9: 10-17). And, finally, God can give grace directly through faithful prayer (James 1: 5-8).
Our greatest need is for a relationship with God. Our sins separate us from God, so we cannot expect much from God until we repent of our sin and ask forgiveness (Acts 2: 38-40). God can justly forgive us because Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins (Colossians 1: 20). If you have not done so already, ask God to forgive you and bring you into the Kingdom of God (Colossians 1: 13). Then you can truly seek the Kingdom of God and have a successful life.
God also wants to use us to be a means of grace in the world. In the same sermon where Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom, He also told His followers that they were salt and light (Matthew 5: 13-16).
Salt speaks of our pure character. In 2 Kings (2: 20-21), the prophet Elisha takes salt and symbolically purifies a spring that had been causing death. When we come into God’s Kingdom, He gives us the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22) which is a pure character conformed to the image of Christ, not the culture around us (Romans 8: 29; 12: 2). Developing character takes time and spiritual disciplines can be helpful means of grace in this regard (Arthur, 2021; Foster, 2018; Whitney, 2014).
Light shines. Character comes before deeds but not without deeds. Just as you need friends to meet your needs, you need to meet the needs of others. To this end, God gives each of us in His Kingdom a spiritual gift (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4). Spiritual gifts are often like talents or skills, but sometimes are truly miraculous. To find meaning and purpose in life (Maslow’s self-actualization), you need to exercise your spiritual gifts (usually as part of team) to bring about the extension of the Kingdom of God so that more people can experience God’s grace and lead successful lives.
So, there you have it. If you want to have success—to have your needs met beyond your expectations, you must seek, salt, and shine by using the means of grace in the Kingdom of God.
References
Arthur, J. (2021). A Christian education in the virtues: Character formation and human flourishing. Routledge.
Cloud, H., & Townsend, J. (1995). Twelve ‘Christian’ beliefs that can drive you crazy. Zondervan.
Foster, R. J. (2018). Celebration of discipline: The path to spiritual growth (rev. ed.). HarperOne.
Miner, J., & Hoffhines, A. (2007). The discovery of aspirin’s antithrombotic effects. The Texas Heart Institute Journal, 34(2), 179-186.
Whitney, D. S. (2014). Spiritual disciplines for the Christian life (rev. ed.). NavPress.
