Commentary: Everybody needs God

The saddest people on earth are the ones who do not have God.”

Every person alive needs God, desperately. And too often he does not even know it. The saddest people on earth are the ones who do not have God. Either they fail to believe that God exists, or they know it but prefer to determine the course of their own lives. They reject Christ and His salvation, offered to all who believe in Him and call on His name. I have so often wondered at those who claim to believe in God but reject Christ. What are they thinking? Do they suppose that they will live forever? I think they are simply mentally ill.

Psychiatrist Dr. M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled) claimed, “The tendency to avoid problems and emotional suffering is the primary basis for all mental illness. Most of us, having this tendency, are mentally ill to a greater or lesser degree, lacking complete mental health.” Dr. Peck started out as an unbeliever, but through studying the Bible became a staunch Christian and advocate for Christianity. His writing proves this.

As a minister of the gospel, I found another statement of his interesting. He said, “But a psychiatrist is not necessarily any better a therapist than a psychologist, a social worker, or even a minister—or even as good.” That statement supports the need for a good church and a good minister who preaches the Word of God (the Bible).

In my considered opinion, based on long life and much study, the Bible and prayer are far more effective in helping troubled people than the best psychiatrists. This, of course, does not apply to those who need certain drugs to control some physical or mental conditions. If you have a good minister, you can and should talk with him for counseling, instead of paying a therapist for listening and offering his opinions, at a high price usually.

Man was created by God for the express purpose of giving Him glory. God also programmed man to be a social creature with an innate need for other people. I have always felt that there are no hermit Christians. Poet John Donne put it very concisely in his poem, No Man Is an Island. He said, “No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” He added the famous line, “Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

This is true, but the best people in our lives can never replace our need for the Lord God. We need Him all the time. The Holy Spirit is our helper, counselor, guide, and best friend. He is our All-in-all. God owes us nothing and has chosen not to divulge many things that are, as the Apostle Paul put it, “hidden in the counsels of God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Though God has chosen to withhold some things from us, the Bible is still far more helpful than tidy systems that vainly try to simplify the complexity of human life.

According to authors Driscoll and Breshears, (Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe), To truly help whole people, we must minister to the whole person since true spirituality encompasses all of our being.” I exhort everyone who believes in God to study his Bible and pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). I exhort any unbeliever to wake up, believe in Christ, and call on Him for salvation. Everybody needs good ministering from time to time. Everybody needs God.

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Ralph Fudge is the pastor of Big Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ga., and has a Master’s degree in theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.