February 18 2025

Tuesday February 18

Our Greatest Need

Luke 11:1-4

1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." 2 So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one."

Today I want us to think about our greatest need. What would you think is the greatest need that a human being has today? First, I remind you that originally, we were not created with this need. When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in innocence! They were created without sin. They were in perfect harmony in their relationship with God and they enjoyed pure and unbroken worship, fellowship and communion in His presence.

But then something happened that broke that relationship and fellowship! Romans 5:12-19 tells us that when the first man, Adam, disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, sin entered the human race along with the pronounced judgement of death. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The word death means “separation”. This sin separated Adam and Eve from God and from their worship and fellowship with Him. They immediately tried to cover their sin, and hid from God, and He had to look for them (Genesis 3:6-13).

Because we are all of Adam’s seed, we are born sinners, separated from God. We are born “children of wrath”, dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul describes this way in Ephesians 2:1-5: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved…”

I never had to teach my children to be mean, to be selfish, or to do wrong. Nor did anyone need to teach me or anyone else to follow the path of evil in our lives. We are born with the nature of sin that puts us on this path from our birth! Yes, sin separates us from God! And our only hope is, in someway, to find mercy from God, and His forgiveness for our sin in order to enter back into a relationship with Him.

Thank God, from eternity past, God already had a plan of redemption that would pay the price for our sin and set us free from the guilt and bondage of it. Again, Romans chapters 1 through 5, go into detail about our sin and how only the blood and death of God’s perfect Son, Jesus Christ, was the only sacrificial and substitutionary death that could remove this sin from us and bring us back into a relationship before God as if we had never sinned. Romans 5:1-2 assures us of this: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Yes, our greatest need is forgiveness for our sin that we can only experience by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross (Ephesians 2:1-9). This reconciles us to God bringing His peace into our hearts and lives and restores us to a relationship with Him. I’m convinced that the greatest human emotional experience that I can have, is to know that I am forgiven for all my sin, no longer under its condemnation and guilt and penalty. (Read Luke 18:10-14).

But just as I need forgiveness from God for my salvation, I need daily forgiveness for my fellowship with the Lord. And, that is what Jesus is teaching us to pray for here in Luke 11:4. When we begin to pray and enter “Our Father’s” presence, and experience His holiness, we become acutely aware of our daily failures and sins. That is what John is talking about in 1 John 1:7-9: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus “Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

My friend, that is why forgiveness is still our great need every day! So we can enjoy continuous worship and fellowship with our Lord. Are you experiencing His forgiveness today?

God bless!