The Need of the Hour

What is the need of the hour? That depends on the person who is thinking about it.

For a beggar with a tin cup, it’s a dime. For a woman being taken to the hospital, it’s a doctor.

But what is it in Christian work? I started to list the things we often feel are the need—those things which, if supplied, would end our troubles.

Some say, “If I just had a larger staff.” Many a minister would like to have an assistant, and many a mission would like to have more missionaries.

Others say, “We don’t need more workers, but better facilities. If we just had more office space and more buildings and a bigger base of operation, then we could do the job.”

In some parts of the world they say it’s better communications we lack, or better transportation, or better health care, or literature.

Many feel the need is an open door into some closed country. But the Bible says, “My God shall supply all your needs.” If we need an open door, why doesn’t God open it—”he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth”?

Some say, “If we just had more time,” or “If I just weren’t so old, if I were only young again.” People have said to me, “Daws, if I had known when I was twenty years old what I know now, I could have done a hundred times more for the Lord. Why didn’t I?”

Often the biggest need seems to be money. Money is the answer to a larger staff, more facilities, better communications and transportation and literature. “If we just had more money.”

An Army of Soldiers

What is the need of the hour? I don’t believe it is any of these. I am convinced that the God of the universe is in control, and He will supply all these needs in His own way and in His own time, all else being right.

The need of the hour is an army of soldiers dedicated to Jesus Christ, who believe that He is God, that He can fulfill every promise He ever made, and that nothing is too hard for Him. This is the only way we can accomplish what is on God’s heart—getting the gospel to every creature.

Discipleship Journal, Issue 61 (January/February 1991) (NavPress, 1991).