When Your Ears Itch

[HKHaugan]

Perceived Needs or Real Needs, When Your Ears Itch

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears aways from the truth and turn aside to myths (2Tim.4:3-4).”

The real issue is when we itch, that's when we scratch. That's a perceived need. But the real issue is what caused the itch which is a deeper problem. If it's skin then you need to look for an answer to the dry skin that caused it. Headaches can be met with an aspirin. But if they persist will a second one really answer the problem? If a shot of whiskey, a cigarette, a pill, more money or a sports ticket seem to answer the need to 'get away from it all', what is this really saying about that inner itch? These are what we called perceived needs. The 'itch' is a perceived need, a surface need. But what's on the surface points to something deeper, a real need. The problem is our sinful nature tells us that the 'fix' has a momentary solution, do it, buy it, be part of it right now. A moment's desire, whim, fascination or urge is exactly that, momentary. There's a problem. It's satisfaction lasts less than a moment and when the cycle of momentary satisfaction becomes a habit you drown in the shallow waters of unfulfillment. There's never enough. The temptation is to believe with a little time and money, taking the pill of self denial and a good night's sleep, you'll feel better in the morning.

But the real need is to see is our tendency to live by our perceived needs. In fact, that is our real temptation, to live by our perceived needs instead of our real needs. To know the difference is to get a real handle on life. In the Lord's Prayer we pray, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” The Lord is telling us that it is the evil one, the devil, tempting us to scratch our itch, our perceived need, the need of the moment. Why? Because the evil one reigns in this world. He is the prince of the temporary, the lion prowling in the shadows of our aloneness and discontent. But God reigns forever in our present and our present is the beginning of living forever. When Jesus taught us how to pray He gave us this assurance about our destiny as His believers. “For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.” It is being aware as citizens of Heaven we have an eternal passport while we travel with a temporary visa in this world.

Our perceived needs are usually based on what can be seen physically and gotten materially. So things like appearance, possessions, social standing and the promised physical pleasure and external security they represent in the world around us, tempt us to build our life around them from one minute to the next. The neon signs they flash promise immediate satisfaction. To be absorbed in them eventually destroys us because our real needs are never met.

So what are our real needs? They are spiritual, personal and relational. From the spiritual comes the personal after which is the relational. The mission of Jesus was to bring us to this awareness of our real needs for which He is the answer, spiritually, personally and relationally. We'll look at this in a bit more detail as we consider Jesus as the spiritual, personal and relational Savior and Lord.