December 4

For I am poor and needy; my heart is wounded within me. — Ps 109:22 BSB

The needy person isn’t just spiritually poor, empty, and naked before God but deeply aware of their need for spiritual blessings to be applied to their soul. Some people find comfort in temptations and take them as signs. Others build their hope on doubts and fears, resting on them as signs. Some lean on past powerful convictions or current ones, thinking they prove their faith. Others rely on their outward religious profession as evidence. But a truly living soul must have blessings from God directly communicated to their heart and conscience. They need deliverance made real to their soul, the blood of Jesus applied with divine power to cleanse their conscience from sin and dead works. They need their spiritual eyes opened to see Jesus, to long for sweet communion with Him, to be drawn into fellowship with Christ, to see Him with the eyes of their soul, to look upon the One they pierced, to mourn over Him, and to experience His dying love manifested to them.

A nominal Christ won’t satisfy a needy sinner. Only Christ, revealed by the power of the Holy Spirit and known spiritually in the soul, can do that. He must come into the heart with all His saving power, shining into the soul like the sun at full strength, pouring out grace and mercy. Nothing less will ever satisfy a soul that has true spiritual life.