May I share a time when God gave me a message using the grammar of need? The birth of our first child coincided with the cancellation of our health insurance. I still, don’t understand how it happened. It had to do with the company being based in the U.S. and Jenna being born in Brazil. Denalyn and I were left with the joy of an eight-pound baby girl and the burden of a twenty-five-hundred-dollar hospital bill.

We settled the bill by draining a savings account. Thankful to be able to pay the debt but bewildered by the insurance problem, I wondered, “Is God trying to tell us something?”

A few weeks later the answer came. I spoke at a retreat for a small, happy church in Florida. A member of the congregation handed me an envelope and said, “This is for your family.” Such gifts were not uncommon. We were accustomed to and grateful for these unsolicited donations, which usually amounted to fifty or a hundred dollars. I expected the amount to be comparable. But when I opened the envelope, the check was for (you guessed it) twenty-five hundred dollars.

Through the language of need, God spoke to me. It was as if he said, “Max, I’m involved in your life. I will take care of you.”

Are you hearing the “language of need”? Or how about the “language of affliction”? Talk about an idiom we avoid. But you and I both know how clearly God speaks in hospital hallways and sickbeds. We know what David meant with the words, “He makes me to lie down” (Ps. 23:2 NKJV, italics mine). Nothing seems to turn our cars toward heaven like a frail body.

God speaks all languages-including yours. Has he not said, “I will … teach you in the way you should go” (Ps. 32:8 NIV)? Are we not urged to “receive instruction from His mouth” (Job 22:22 NASB)? What language is God speaking to you?

And aren’t you glad he is speaking? Aren’t you grateful that he cares enough to talk? Isn’t it good to know that “the LORD tells his secrets to those who respect him.” (Ps. 25:14)?

He Chose The Nails, p. 45 – 46. Copyright. W Publishing, 2000,Max Lucado. Used by permission.