God will supply all our needs

My God will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory. (Phil 4:19) He will give His angels charge over me, Jehovah Jira cares for me.

I have been thinking on this for a few days. I have been thinking about needs. Needs encompass all aspects of our being, from food and shelter to realizing our potential. How often I have limited to God in my prayers to a particular request that I perceived as a “need”. But God cares about us in our entirety, and desires us to become all that we can be.

In college, I studied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is presented in a pyramid, the lowest layer composed of basic human survival needs and the highest composed of “self-actualization”, our realization that God loves us perfectly and wants the best for us in spite of ourselves. At the highest level, we accept the grace of God, accept that God loves us as we are, and learn to accept and love ourselves.

The hierarchy of needs is presented here, from one to five, with additional subsets added to the pyramid in later years. Although Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is attributes to humanism, it is really just borrowed from the Word of God.

 1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
        
• God gave manna to the Israelites. Jesus fed the multitude. God fed Elijah, the widow and her son.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability.

• God protected the Israelites from Pharaoh. God released Paul from jail. Jesus disappeared from the Pharisees who meant Him harm.

3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships.

• Though your mother and father forsake you, I will not forsake you (Ps 27:10)

• For the Lord will not forsake His people, He will never forsake His inheritance. (Ps 94:14)

4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility.

• The Lord promoted Joseph to a high rank no matter how low he was cast down by others.

• For God is a shield for me, my glory and the lifter of my head (Ps 3:3)
• God took a shepherd and made him a king.

       4 a. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.

• The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Ps 119:130)

       4 b. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

• As Christians, our eyes are opened to the breathtaking beauty in the world. We understand and see the world not only as it is, but also how it could be.

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

• Although Christians were persecuted on all sides, Christians survived the Roman Empire and survive today.

       5 a. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization.

• A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

”One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.” (Ps 27:4-6) David’s hierarchy of needs.