What is your “only if” right now?

Only if I was financially secure?
Only if I was married with children?
Only if I had a better job?
Only if my family would get along?
Only if my health was better?
Only if I was retired and living in Hawaii?

Is your “only if” an apparent need or a true need? An apparent need is what you think you need to make your life better (happy). But your true need is what you truly need.

Our apparent (seeming) needs are such that they will never be satisfied, for they are constantly changing. (What you wanted 10 years ago, you probably got. But don’t you want something else now?) However, our true need never changes. It is what we truly need whether we know it or not. The problem is that we only get at the true need only to meet our apparent needs. In other words, we only scrape the surface of our true need, never meeting it, and only in order to satisfy our apparent need.

Confused?
What is our true need? Jesus Christ. What is your apparent need? Say, it’s more money. But it’s only an apparent need since having more of it won’t solve our problem (Ones with more money usually have more problems BECAUSE OF money). What we really want is security. But who provides eternal security? Jesus. Not money. However, we only go to Jesus until we get financially stable, and once that’s satisfied, we forget about Jesus. Until another apparent need arises… Our apparent need will always be prominent in our lives until our true need is met.

Jesus said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:9). But that’s not the man or everyone else thought he needed. He needed physical healing. Not forgiveness! But even his dire physical condition was only an apparent need. His true need was Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus surprised everyone by saying, “your sins are forgiven,” rather than “your disease is healed.” Jesus was meeting his true need.

So, what is your “only if?”

Let it be, “Only if I knew Jesus Christ more intimately and saw Him for who He truly is.”

PH