 Get "Religious Speak" out of your vocabulary!
We've all heard it said, "God said he would meet your needs, not your wants."
This phrase is a prime example of "religious speak" and has nothing to do with the truth of God's Word. Sure, it "sounds" good - just like, "I'm just an old sinner, saved by grace." But when you examine these much used and worn out phrases in light of God's Word, they are all reduced to nothing more than religious jargon. They are used to give the impression that the person speaking is being "humble". But both phrases, along with many others that have been handed down to us over the years, are in direct opposition to the Word of God. "I'm just an old sinner, saved by grace" is a slap in the face of Jesus, who paid a huge price for your redemption. Through the precious Blood of Jesus, we are made righteous. Not of our own righteous, but the righteousness that He provided for us on the cross of Calvary.
(2 Cor 5:21, NKJV)
For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [Jesus].
The root of the problem is that most Christians do not spend time in the Word of God for themselves. Most brush the dust off the cover once a week as they rush out the door to church and don't touch it again until the following Sunday. The only "Word" they hear comes by following along with the Scripture on the Pastor's overhead projector, or repeat "what they think" the Word says - and never attempt an in-depth Bible study for themselves.
Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge."
In this study, we will first investigate and totally discredit the phrase, "God will meet your needs, not your wants" by using Scripture and keeping our comments to a minimum.
The following scriptures will suffice to knock this "religious speak" back where it belongs:
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." - John 15:7 (NKJV)
"If you live in Me (abide vitally united to me) and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." - John 15:7 (Amplified Bible)
The promise is "ask what ye will," plainly teaching that answered prayer is up to the child of God as to what he wants. This is in perfect harmony with promises of both testaments. A true Christian can get what he wants as well as what he needs.
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." - Psalm 23:1
"Oh fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him." - Psalm 34:9
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly." - Psalm 84:11
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." - Psalm 37:4-5
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened." - Matthew 7:7-8
"So Jesus said to them, 'Because of your unbelief,' for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,' Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthews 17:20
"Assuredly I say to you, whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." - Matthew 18:18,19
"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." - Matthew 21:22
"Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe,' all things are possible to him who believes." - Mark 9:23
"For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you; whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them." - Mark 11:23, 24
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, i will do it." - John 14:12-14
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." - John 15:7
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give it you." - John 15:16
"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." - John 16:23-24
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." - Ephesians. 3:20
"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." - Hebrews 11:6
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" - James 1:5-8
"Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment; that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment." - 1 John 3:21-23
"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." - 1 John 5:14,15
A prayer saying, "If it be Thy will" concerning anything God has already promised, and therefore has already made clear that it is His will, providing we ask in faith, nothing wavering, is really a prayer of unbelief.
It is like saying, "I know you have already promised and you have made it very clear by Your Word that it is your will, but do you really mean what you say?"
Are you a truthful God or not? Can we depend upon what you say?
We insult God by constantly questioning His will that is already revealed by His Word.
The only excuse for not having every need and want met within the bounds of Scripture is unbelief (Matt. 17:20-21; Heb. 11:6; Jas. 1:5-8) and ignorance of truth (Hosea 4:6, Jer. 15:7)
(Personal study using New King James Bible translation, Amplified Bible and Dake's Notes)
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