Saturday: The First Need: to Belong
WEEK 3
SATURDAY
THE FIRST NEED: TO BELONG
Romans 1:1-6
Psychology says that the human personality has three basic needs: the need to belong, the need for significance, and the need for reasonable security.
Note the first need is “to belong.” The rogue elephant put out of the herd by the younger males turns destructive, tearing up trees, houses, gardens, everything, because he doesn’t belong. He is uneasy and unhappy. The modern person has that same feeling—he or she doesn’t belong. Old sanctions of life are gone, and no new ones take their place; hence modern people are destructive to themselves and others. We need to belong.
The group in that upper room decided to belong, to make Jesus Lord, to bank their all upon him, to surrender to him. The consequence was that, when they surrendered to him, they didn’t surrender to anything else—everything else surrendered to them! Low at his feet, they stood straight before everything else. Bound to him, they walked the earth free! Belonging to him, everything belonged to them. They were mastered, and as a result became masterful.
Moreover, they had significance. They had the significance of the thing to which they belonged. They found that the thing to which they belonged was Ultimate Reality. Therefore they went out with the sense that Ultimate Reality was behind them, backing them and approving of them. Hence they were afraid of nothing. As long as you belong only to yourself, you are uneasy, for you have no cosmic backing; nothing sustains you except yourself. And you know deep down that this isn’t enough to sustain you. Hence your uneasiness.
And the third need of the disciples was met; they had reasonable security. When they let go their false securities of pride, of self-assertion, of possessiveness, and took God’s security, the wavering went from their wills; they walked the earth conquerors.
Self-surrender was the key. Not world-surrender, as some think, but something deeper—self-surrender. It is possible to give up the world and not give up yourself. The Naga sadhus, “the sky-clothed,” the naked sadhus of India,* renounce the world; but they are self-assertive and difficult to handle, for they haven’t given up themselves.
O Christ, master me. I consent. Then I am in safe hands; then I can let my whole weight down. I belong. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My first step in mastery is to be mastered at the place of the self.
* The Naga are an Indian people group. A sadhu is a religious ascetic or holy person.