What Every Person Needs

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jer 2:12-13)Our lives are meant to be reflectors of God. Being made in His image, we are to mimic His character. This is holiness. He is love, therefore we love in the same way. We reflect His character not by mimicking His nature but by absorbing from His provision. When we entrust our hearts to God's provision, we find not only holiness, but satisfaction in living holy lives.At the same time, the mind is wired to protect itself, the same way the body is designed to protect itself.

The mind naturally feels that it has needs;-To be heard and understood
-To be affirmed
-To be blessed
-To be safe
-To be touched
-To be chosen
-To be included

When your mind believes your 'self' lacks value it either
-Creates a model of living that provides value for itself or
-Justifies it's lack of value.

These are the 'cisterns' our mind drinks from rather than returning to our life-giving Lord. To put that in a practical example, if a young boy sees his drunk father stumble in the door, and hears his mother screaming about what an out of work failure that man is, and how he is tearing apart their family. If this is a defining moment for the boy, he will most likely grow up believing that security is found in keeping a job and being successful, while his significance will be rooted in keeping a family together.The conscious mind sees and interprets circumstances and the subconscious feels the pain of having unmet needs.

When we don't get what we need, we are designed to subconsciously alter its behaviour in an effort to survive. For example, if you stop eating, your body will digest much slower, holding onto whatever food it has. The mind, intrinsically connected to the body, functions in the same way. Whether the mind feels threatened by external circumstances (i.e. what others expect from us) or from inner turmoil (i.e. damaged emotions), it will respond much like your body does when you stop eating; the mind will grab onto what it can and try to defend itself from further damage.The truth is that all of our needs can be met in Christ. The solution is to find and understand what our mind identifies as an unmet need, and why it feels the need to fill that cistern via a spring other than Christ. Ultimately what we believe is that Christ is a sufficient lifesource for all our desires