I dropped my youngest daughter off at the dance studio and as I was driving home my mind was wandering as minds often do. It flitted from topic to topic until it settled on the upcoming graduation from high school and college of my oldest daughter.

I would say her graduation from both high school and college is a perk of homeschooling, but it’s not that at all. In my area of the world, our local high school has partnered with our junior college and offers many dual-enrollment classes. In our eyes it just makes sense to take advantage of this option.

Intrinsically I already know it will be a hard time for me. I’ve shed a few tears already and it is becoming less and less easy to just shove the whole idea to the back of my mind. Hello! It’s coming. It’s coming soon.

Mentally I was asking friends to please, oh please, come to the reception because I need you. I need you to keep me sane. I need you to allow me to lose my mind in anger or tears and not try to fix it and not take it personally. I need you!

And Jesus spoke to my soul, “Who do you really need?” My soul answered very quickly with, “Only You, Jesus.” He has been teaching me over the past several weeks and months just Who really meets my needs and how He does it. To say His voice on this has revolutionized my thinking would win the understatement of the year award.

For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall put drink, nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? Matthew 6:25

We tend to focus on the physical needs and obsess and stress about how to meet those needs. They seem more real than the other –  heart needs. We think by meeting the physical needs our internal heart needs will be met as well. But the physical will never meet the spiritual.

We just can not expect a new pair of shoes to meet our heart need for affirmation. It won’t happen. Even if they’re really cute shoes.

All the shine of a thousand spotlights;
All the stars we steal from the night sky;
Will never be enough, never be enough.
Towers of gold are still too little;
These hands could hold the world; but 
It’ll never be enough, never be enough
For me

(Never Enough by Mike Portnoy)

The physical will never be enough to meet the deepest heart need we have.  It will seem to for a short time but that feeling fades and we’re left feeling empty, maybe even more empty than we did before. So we work and worry when Jesus says, “it’ll never be enough, so just stop. Look to Me and I will meet the greatest need of your longing heart. In Me you will find all the treasures and I will tenderly care for you like a mother to a child, like a hen gathers her chicks.”

All too often, we delude ourselves by thinking that cute pair of shoes will meet our deepest heart need. When a friend rejects us, we must have that pair of shoes. When someone criticizes us, we must have a cup of coffee and a new mug. But those don’t satisfy our soul.

While we can’t meet our spiritual needs with the physical, each of our physical needs (food, clothing, and shelter) does have a spiritual counterpart.

Food:

• I am the Bread of Life. (John 6:35, 41 & 51)
• Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4)
• O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blesses is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)

Clothing

• Put on the full armor of God. (Ephesians 6: 11-17)
• For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
• I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Shelter

• …How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37)
• Be to me a Rock of Habitation to which I may continually come, You have given commandment to save me, for You are my Rock and my Fortress. (Psalm 71:3)
• The eternal God is a dwelling place. And underneath are the everlasting arms; and He drove out the enemy from before you, and said, “Destroy”. (Deuteronomy 33:27)
• He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

He meets our every need. Spiritual and physical. And He meets them in ways we can’t always begin to imagine. He meets them and fills them, He fulfills them with Himself. His life meets our heart needs and in Him our hearts find the love, acceptance and affirmation they long for most.

So the next time you think you need someone, remember you only need one Someone and He is so ready to meet your heart needs with His life. He satisfies the longing, needy heart.