I love feeling needed. It brings a sense of purpose when my son asks for advice or when my husband gushes compliments over the dinner I cooked.
But what happens when no one asks for my help?
The older my kids get, the less useful I feel. Does that mean I have no value? Absolutely not! Our identity comes from our merciful Savior. God defines who we are through his love.
How Wanting to Be Needed Affects Our Identity
God gave each of us unique gifts and talents. He also offers opportunities for us to use those gifts to serve the world around us. When we put our skills into action, we can laser-focus on that purpose. But we need to be careful of only thinking we have value when others need us.
Let’s face it. Serving others makes us feel all warm inside. Especially when we’re helping our family or friends. It’s easy to mistake those feelings of fulfillment for something else.
This happens when we let our good works determine our worth.
The Danger of Attaching My Value to My Busyness
It’s in our nature as Type-A women to want to be helpful. So often we see someone struggling and know with a little effort, we can get the job done. We may even step in when God asked us to wait. (I for one have a hard time resisting the urge to help God!)
As much as we love doing good works, God is much more interested in His work in us.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)
The above verse reminds us that even though God created us for good works, our worth is found in who we are through Him. When we remain in that truth, our good works will shine with the goodness of Christ.
Whatever is causing you to feel less needed today, my go-getter friend, God knows. He wants us to help others, but He also wants us to know our worth is based on who He is, not what we do. So when our kids, families, or friends don’t need our help, we won’t feel like no one values us.
We can fight off the fear of not being needed by reminding ourselves of our identity as children of God.
With all that’s going on in the world, we may be struggling with knowing how and when to help. Here is a prayer that will help us discern how to help when we don’t know what to do next. Check out the video prayer below.
A portion of this devotion is an excerpt from an article by Kristine Brown, “What Is Scripture’s Answer to the Fear of Missing Out?” originally published on iBelieve.com.