SCL

Jon

Some of what you’ve written touches on something I wanted to email you as a suggestion to SCL about whilst I was stuck in traffic coming from one side of Melburn to the other after work today.

Will have a really good look at this after I come home from my second job tonight. Think it’s something I need to consider very deliberately.

-RC

Hi,
Thank you so much for this post. I think this is such a weakness for me as well. This is my first responce so I don’t know how things like this go but do you mind sharing any scriptures that help you when you tend to feel that God needs you? the one’s that helped you on this discovery?

I had to work through this very idea when a book I was reading actually said that “God needed me” and that creation was incomplete without me. I have to say, at first I was flattered, but something just bugged me about that statement. I kept thinking about it and very quickly came to the same conclusion that you just discussed in this post. God doesn’t need me at all. But instead of being devastated and thinking you suck for saying that, I think it’s a pretty wonderful thing to realize that even though God doesn’t need us, He most certainly wants us. Even though He could accomplish His will without me, He invites me to participate. He gets the glory, I get the blessing.

I think the idea that God doesn’t need us is so hard to deal with that a lot of people balk at it. I’ve heard so many Christians, educated ones, say “God made man for worship.” This implies that God needs our adoration but it is so far from the truth.

God literally existed infinitely before He created anything. There was nothing missing from Him that needed creation to complete. He isn’t lonely or so egotistical that He needs people to praise Him. He is 100% whole and complete, self sufficient by Himself.

That is why it becomes even more powerful in that light to see that God chooses to love everyone and be concerned with our every detail, even the details of things such as the hair on our head.

That is a powerful statement that we come to Him with nothing and He comes to us with everything x infinity and we get to have a relationship with Him.

Jon, thanks for this post. I love what snoodlings said also, “God doesn’t need us but He certainly wants us”

God’s plan will be accomplished. It’s up to us to decide whether we are active participants or not. He’s picked us for His team, so we can either get in there and play or sit on the bench and watch. Either way God will win the game.

“He calls me on this adventure because He knows I love adventures and He enjoys seeing me do things I love.”
that’s just cool. it made me think that God is a God who delights in me, his creation. and since he takes pleasure in me, he doesn’t want to see me hating, being prideful, etc.
and as casting crowns says: how refreshing to know you don’t need me, how amazing to find that you want me.
wv: hootena-queen of the hootenanny

Thanks.

You’re right, Jon. God doesn’t need you or me. But He put us here and we all need each other. (Cue Barbra Streisand music here). Your followers are just one more example of “when two or more are gathered in His name…”. Yeah, lotta love going on there.

You know what they say – if you’d like to hear God laugh, tell him what your plans are. It’s our responsibility to adjust our lives to God’s plan. Most of us, myself included, are in the habit of asking Him to adjust His plan to our life. Somehow we can’t quite figure out why that doesn’t work.

Humility is an amazing thing. Thank you, Jon, for possessing it.

“Indeed, I have noticed at times a tendency even to fail to appreciate what is regarded by the Bible as the greatest virtue of all, namely, humility.” ~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

As the philosopher-theologian St. Anselm wrote, God is a non-contingent being whose existence itself is necessary. Humans, on the other hand, do not exist by necessity, and our existence is entirely contingent upon God’s. The difference is stark!

I think you’re on to something. And you’re starting to sound Reformed…

Dear manuscript finisher Jon Acuff:

CONGRATS! And like I said on FB he does not need me, he died on the cross because he wants me. PRAISE GOD.

Great Post.

Thanks for reminding me that God reached into creation out of love, not lack.

-Nick

Thanks Jon. I needed this today too. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself when I’m on an assignment. I start thinking it needs to be BIGGER and BETTER and MORE LIFE-IMPACTING. Then I have these epiphanies when I’m reminded that God takes care of those things. I just need to obey.

I needed one of those today. So yay you.

Great stuff, Jon. I read your blog a lot, but have never posted (I don’t think so, at least…). I love the ideas you bandy about.

Thanks for this.

Thanks for the encouragement to continue. I’m at a place in my life where I’m about to invest years of my life into a project that I believe God is calling me to do. Every time I work on it, especially during those first few minutes of getting started, I’m scared that I’m wasting resources, time and energy for something that will be laughed at and mocked. Thank you for reminding me that what God has called me to do is more than just something I’m going to do. It is part of His bigger picture, His creation.

great post. thank you.much needed to hear today.

As if being able to say “my editor” isn’t the verbal equivalent of landing a helicopter on the front lawn! But seriously (since this is Wednesday) I get what you mean.

Wow. This is full of AWESOME Truth.

We should look at doing work for the Lord (even work as simple as taking out the trash for our neighbor) as an honor. It is too cool to think that God would let His screw-up children take part in something as beautiful and special as His plan.

You have a wonderful gift.

When my husband first turned his life over to God this was what he loved to say. “He doesn’t need me. He wants me.”

We can’t earn God’s love. We can’t even chip in on gas for this adventure but He wants us to come along anyway. How cool is that?

I needed to read this today. I have been struggling lately with my “calling” and what God wants from me — this reminded me that He wants to love me, and let that love do its work within and through me.

Thank you, Jon.

Absolutely beautiful.

Thank you Father, for loving Jon so much. He splashed it on us today.

This post reminds me of a song by I don’t know who. I first heard it on Grey’s Anatomy (I know, HEATHEN!). The chorus goes on and on repeating “You are my joy”. It is a powerful reminder to me, on those days when I feel unworthy and unneeded, that I can allow God to be glorified through me or I can try to plug away on my own. I can, in fact was created to, bring God joy. The amazing thing is how much peace and joy I find when I am dancing with the Father, allowing Him to lead.

Thank you for pointing me back in the right direction.

My last couple of posts have been along these same lines. I won’t link them here, but I will link a video that I posted yesterday by Brennan Manning, because it’s just awesome with a capital awe:
Do you believe that I loved you?P.S. – I was going to start referring to you as Manuscript Finisher Jon Acuff, but the acronym might be taken the wrong way (MFJA).

Yep. You don’t have to feel bad if the book gets remaindered. Similarly, you don’t need to feel bad if it goes best seller. Writing isn’t saving you.

Love this. Thanks. See you at Orange next week.

WV: unick– I think Daniel was a unick, but I tend to stay in denial about what all that entails.

Amen! I so needed this today!

I know I’m where I need to be because God so graciously confirmed every little detail but the most recent direction that God has called me to has been out of my comfort zone in so many ways. I’ve been feeling like God has called me to complete something that I don’t have the skills to do well and have been so downtrodden when I have setbacks along the way. The physical symptoms of stress I’ve been experiencing the last year or so have been unlike anything I thought I would experience as someone in my early 20’s.

This post reminded me that God will use me the way he needs to so long as I’m committing myself to him everyday! I don’t need to be perfect, the best, or outstanding by other people’s standards, I need to be in tune with God’s plan for my life and giving my all in whatever he calls me to do. He can fill in the holes I miss. My shortcomings aren’t going to keep him from getting his work done.

Worse than thinking God doesn’t need me, is that I sometimes have days like today where I feel like God doesn’t even want me. Isn’t that terrible? I’ve been a Christian for over 20 years, and I still sometimes feel that way in such a big way that I can’t even describe it.

This is such a wonderful post! It’s true that God doesn’t “need” us, but he does “want” us. He wants to do things for and through us so that we (and others) will be able to fully appreciate the magnitude of his love! God Bless.

thanks.
and congratulations on your manuscript.

this is beautiful.

God doesn’t need me. God doesn’t need us. that thought would make me sad, despondent, and depressed if it weren’t for how insanely he loved us.

l. l. barkat writes in a meditation on psalm 139 about how the Lord “chooses to need us.” it’s shocking at first; perhaps it even sounds sacreligious. strictly speaking, God doesn’t need me. He just doesn’t. he created the universe without my help and has kept the globe spinning on its axis ever since. if i am asleep or having a bad day, God still makes things happen.

there is such danger in having the kind of hubris that says: God is so lucky to have me on his team. that’s not the need barkat is talking about.

in luke 19, Jesus sends two of his disciples to go to the village ahead of them and find the colt he already knew was there and, when the owner asked why, to tell him, “the Lord needs it.” (v. 31)

crazy, huh? Jesus saying he needed a colt?

there’s a lot that could be said or inferred from this and no doubt there are multiple ways to interpret this little sentence. i guess that strictly speaking, Jesus didn’t need that colt. he could have called on bands of angels or summoned a marching band if he wanted to. but he chose to need it. he limited himself. he had had 33 years of practice in this: of emptying himself of all but love, of limiting himself out of love for us.

so maybe it’s semantical, maybe it’s viewing the same truth from a different angle: God doesn’t need us. but he chooses to use us, to “need us” to accomplish his work on earth — as imperfect and bumbling and impaired as we are (for me, this applies about 100% of the time). instead of puffing me up with pride, this urges me toward embracing humility and fills me with the desire to imitate my humble God.

thanks, jon. God doesn’t need you. but He uses you.

[[p.s. my verification word for this comment is "undogs". does anyone else think that's funny??]]

That was beautiful, Jon. Thanks for reminding me of something I need to tell myself over and over again.

I remember watching the Way of the Master series in grade 12 and coming home essentially convinced that I was personally responsible for sending my friends to hell because I didn’t witness enough or witness properly or what have you. And my parents told me the same thing: “God doesn’t need you.” For someone like me, who has a tendency to blame herself for everything and take on the burdens of the whole world, it’s incredibly freeing to know that.

There’s a Caedmon’s Call song called The Truth which I really love, and the chorus says it well.

“There was life before my life
Was provision before my need
Was redemption before my sin
For the sake of the world, I thank the Lord
That the Truth’s not contingent on me.”

Good word. And, hey, who all can say they have an editor to e-mail? That is super cool in and of itself!

Wow. Well said.

…to get to a place where we drown in the love of God and then live ecstatic in that drowning, knowing we didn’t have a thing to do with it…

That would change everything.

You got that right! Great post, Jon.

Amen, Jon! God is complete and isn’t needy. And He loves us, and gives us things to do in His power for His glory so that He can reveal Himself to us through it and reward us for it in the end! What a great God!!

We all have lots of needy people around us – it is so nice to know that God just wants us. Everything we do for Him just flows out of that ever abounding love. I don’t know about the rest of you – but there are times I really need to be wanted.

Sorry the doves didn’t appear from the back of your computer.

Try holding down the Ctrl key and pressing F7. That should do it.

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(Sorry Jon, but everyone was being so serious today!)

Jon….words fail me. Thanks for this post. You do not suck.

This is such an encouragement. Thanks for writing it! See, I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum as you. I tend to be the one feeling worthless because I don’t have an excellent ministry, or haven’t gone on a mission, haven’t read the Bible straight through, or whatever.
Sometimes we get so focused on our goals and the future that we forget about the here and now. Its good to be reminded that I am right where God wants me, and that I should just enjoy what I have and express my love there.

I think this is part of theology that a lot of people (Christians and non-Christians) struggle with – who is this greedy, narcissistic God who is about forced adoration? The answer – God doesn’t need you, you need God – is hard to swallow.

Not sure if anyone is still reading the comments from this post, however for anybody who is interested I have listened to a CD recording called ‘Letting God Love You’ by Brent Rue (Vineyard pastor who died many years ago…its an old recording) and every time I hear it the wisdom and sense of it just melts me.

Not even sure if it is still around, but I highly recommend it

Excellent reminder! When we think God needs us to do something, then our work becomes an obligation and burn-out is bound to come. When we serve God out of an overflow of His love for us and our love for Him, then the yoke is easy and the burden is light. Thanks for the reminder!

wow…__really, I don't what else to say…but WOW! __I've always pondered this alot…thinking that God doesnt need me,and that made me feel like He doesnt love me either. But I now know better:)__Thank you Jon:)