God Does Not Need You
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Acts 17:25
God doesn’t need anything. Not food, not shelter, not medicine. He is completely and truly self-sustaining. He is the great I AM. He simply exists.
This also means that God does not need you. Sorry to burst your bubble. God did not save you because he needed to have you. Even if he condemned every sinner to hell, God would still be complete.
Does that truth hurt? Is it shocking? Is it offensive? Truly, this teaching about God reveals the shock and offense of God’s grace!
At election time, you might hear someone say, “I don’t like either candidate, so I’m voting for the lesser of two evils.” That person recognizes that though neither candidate is good someone has to fill the office. That person NEEDS someone in that role.
If God needed you, there would be something missing in God. Something he could not continue to exist without. So, his favor toward you would be less grace and more a deal with the devil. He would keep you around because he needed you, sinful and evil as you are.
God does not need you.
But, oh, how he wanted you!
Why would God lower himself to become a man if he didn’t need you? Because he wanted you.
Why would God allow himself to experience the pain and toil of life if he didn’t need you? Because he wanted you.
Why would God allow himself to die innocently and suffer all the torments of hell for sinful you if he didn’t need you? Because he wanted you.
Have you ever been in a one-sided friendship? One where you’re somebody’s friend, but they’re not really a friend to you? Maybe in high school, you had the car, so your “friends” kept you around to drive them places. They were friends with you because they “needed” you (or at least needed your car). If they were just your friends to get what they needed from you, they weren’t your friends.
But you don’t have to worry about having a one-sided relationship with God. He doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need anything from you.
But he does want you. And he’s gone to extreme lengths to prove just how much he wants you. He’s come all the way to earth, gone all the way to the cross so that he might have you. If God wanted you that badly, how could you ever do anything to make him not want you?