Lord, I Need You

At the 2011 Passion Conference for young adults, the song “Lord, I Need You” became an anthem for many followers of Jesus around the world. This is a song you are probably familiar with. It may even be a song that you’ve casually sung without actually thinking about ways that you truly need God.

The chorus goes like this: 

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You

I can remember singing this song many times and fully knowing that I need God, but at the same time I was not understanding it because everything in my life seemed to be going smoothly. While I knew I had a need for Jesus, at times I really didn’t feel a desperate need for Him. 

In these days of uncertainty revolving around the Coronavirus, I’ve started thinking a lot about this song. It’s become very clear how great our need for God is during these times when our normal rhythms of life are completely stripped down. Our abilities to work at the office, worship together corporately, see and spend time with friends, eat out, go to school, watch sports, etc. have all been taken away. 

To a certain extent, all of these constraints have taken away the autonomy each of us has for our own lives. All of a sudden, we don’t feel in control of our lives, and in turn, we have now become more aware of our need for Jesus. 

Our need hasn’t changed. Instead, our need has now become our desire. For some of us, before this pandemic began, we had a general sense of our need for Jesus. We may have known we needed Him, but for many of us, our desire didn't match our need for Him. 

Jesus hasn’t changed during this pandemic. As a result of the pandemic and the removal of many of our wants, we may have discovered the true meaning of the song “Lord, I Need You.” More than anything the world can offer us, we not only want but need Jesus—every hour of every day. 

Sometimes it takes the removal of our wants to allow for our need to become our desire. Think about the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. Verse 14 says, “And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.”

It wasn’t until he had vanquished his resources given to him by his father and a famine entered the land that he discovered his need.

I think during this time as our resources have been constrained and a “famine” has entered the land, we, like the Prodigal Son, are discovering what a great need we have.

Over the course of this pandemic, let’s allow our needs to become our wants, and let us follow the Prodigal Son’s example by running to the father and saying, “Lord, I need you.”