“man’s got needs”

bruhhh, absolutely.

I was sitting with the book of Deuteronomy the other day, chapters 4–8. Side note: I once heard someone say, “Deuteronomy means to ‘dethrone’ your enemy.”

LOL! Puh-lease. I still can’t fathom how they came up with that. For rhymes, perhaps? Ugh. It is well. We’ll come back to that.

As I was saying, my reflections kept coming back to one central, piercing thought:

God has no inadequacy.

The things we erroneously perceive to be His “inadequacy” usually become the basis for our own idolatry.

When I first wrote it down in my study notes this way, I ‘marinated’ in it for like ten minutes straight. Because, Lord!

Then it hit me. This isn’t just ancient history. We love to side-eye the Israelites, but this is the heartbeat of our most modern struggles. We search for satisfaction in so many places—often because, somewhere deep down, we’ve concluded that God isn’t enough, or that He isn’t present in this particular area of our lives.

Just like them, we are complex beings with intricate needs that God designed Himself to meet. But when we perceive a deficiency in His ability or willingness to provide, we create substitutes (idols) to fill the void. The Israelites fashioned a golden calf because they hadn’t seen the form of the God who spoke to them. He was real, He was working, but He wasn’t visible in the way they wanted. So they made something they could see.

It’s the same with us.

When we perceive God’s “inadequacy” as a lack of visible care, we construct our own golden calves: things that are tangible, things we can manage and control, hoping they’ll deliver what only God can give. We trade the Creator for a creature we can get our hands on. We do it with careers. With substances. And very often, with relationships.

Which brings me to the phrase that inspired this newsletter: “Man’s got needs.”

I’ve heard this phrase being used to justify hookup culture, a lack of self-control, or a “harmless” vice. And here’s what’s really happening when we invoke it: we are trying to solve a soul or spirit hunger with a “body” solution.

But man is more than a body.

Feed only the body, and the rest of you starves.

---

The Body

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses recounted how God provided manna, food the Israelites didn’t even know existed, and ensured that their clothes didn’t wear out over forty years of wilderness wandering. Forty years. Not a single worn-out sandal.

If you’ve concluded that God is inadequate when it comes to your security or your pleasure, you’ll inevitably make an idol of money or lust, because you’ve decided you have to secure those things for yourself.

You don’t trust Him to provide, so you take matters into your own hands.

The Soul.

The soul is that part where the mind, the emotions, and the will all reside. And the soul is—well—soul-ish. It has a massive need to be seen, to be valued, to hear the words: “You belong.”

When we perceive God’s inadequacy as His being “distant” or “too holy to care about what I’m feeling,” we go looking for that affirmation in all the wrong places.

We build idols out of people’s opinions. We tether our souls to toxic situations and people who lead us astray, simply because they offer us the validation we’ve convinced ourselves God is withholding. We trade the Truth that sets us free for a lie that just feels cozy, for a moment too long.

The Spirit.

The spirit is the most misunderstood and probably the most neglected, even when it’s the deepest part of us. It’s the part that knows we weren’t just made for 70 or 80 years of eating and feeling fly. It’s the part that Jesus was talking about when He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

If we perceive God’s “inadequacy” to be that He is invisible or “silent,” we try to fill that spiritual void with materialism or sheer nonsense. We try to satisfy an eternal hunger with temporary things. It’s like trying to fill a canyon with a teaspoon of sand. It’s never going to work.

The spirit needs connection to the Source. Without it, you can have the best sex, the most money, and the loudest applause, and you’ll still wake up feeling empty.

Back to that “Deuteronomy means dethrone” your enemy” nonsense. Deuteronomy actually means “second law.” But in a weird way, idolatry is an attempt to “dethrone” God from the areas where we think He’s failing us. My advice? Don’t.

God’s track record is not one of inadequacy. Never has been. The question was never whether He is enough. The question is whether we trust that He is.

Fellow saints, don’t build the calf. Don’t trade the real thing for a substitute that was never designed to hold what you’re asking it to hold. Man’s got needs—and God, in His fullness, can meet every single one of them.

’nough said.

In Ebele’s voice, “Grace to you.”

---

This song is fitting. Theologically so :)

Yours in Quality Time,
Adébọ́lá. 🦋