“And I am desperate for you! I am lost without you!” This is one of those songs I would belt out during praise and worship. But what does this desperation look like?
I think of the mother in Mark 7 that went to Jesus to ask for help; she was a Gentile (Syro-Phoenician) who at this time was not supposed to mix with the Jews. This Syro-Phoenician woman heard about Jesus and that he was a healer and came looking for him because her daughter needed healing.
She kept asking Jesus to come and heal her daughter even though she knew at the time this was unacceptable for her to do. But there was a need that only Jesus could meet, and she knew that she needed to do whatever it would take to get that need met.
Sometimes I wonder if I have this desperation, or if this an ongoing posture that we must have. Yes, I want God to be close and I want to have an intimate relationship with him but is this the sense of desperation that we need all the time? If so, can we show this desperation all the time? Or better yet do we need to show this level of desperation all the time?
After we have had our needs met, we tend to feel distant from God because we are no longer calling on him 24/7 for a prayer to be answered. This, however, does not mean that we still aren’t desperate for him, it is just shown in a different way. In our moments of desperation, we develop a connection with God that strengthen our relationship with him.
So, as we grow and we experience different challenges in life, we react differently than we did in the past. Each step and each new challenge is just a test to see if we remember what God has done before.
There are times when I feel like I’m not as close to God because I’m not fasting every week or on my knees begging for some prayer to be answered. But in the past when I have done that, God has answered and assured me time and again that he will come through. So now when I hit a new challenge, it seems like talking with a friend about a situation that we have both conquered. It is a little comforting to know that we are already victorious.
So, like the Syro-Phoenician woman who knew she needed healing for her daughter, and she begged for help untilshe got an answer, so too we may need to start off. However, to follow this up, we don’t need to stay so far away that the next time we are in need we feel like outsiders who don’t belong.
We don’t need to be in a constant state of desperation, but we should graduate to companionship and friendship with Jesus. Knowing that we are lost without him should be motivation enough to keep us close to him. So, if you’re like me, and wonder at times why you don’t have that deep sense of desperation, maybe you have been working on that relationship with God, which is the best thing to do.
Ashea West is a third-year medical student from Manchester, Jamaica studying in the USA. I am passionate about sharing the gospel, using whatever opportunities I am given. I do believe in blooming wherever I am transplanted.
