“When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” Genesis 15:17-18
“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” John 5:26
God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need me.
That may sound shocking or stark to some. But truth is what sets us free. Just like God’s self‑existence, understanding His self‑sufficiency is essential to our Christian walk.
Now, God being self-sufficient doesn’t then lead us into the heresy of deism. That’s the claim that God did create the world but doesn’t intervene daily in our lives. Deists must disregard just about every page of the Bible, including the entire New Testament in order to hold to their views. They must shut their ears to the millions of testimonies by believers of God’s daily intercessions.
On the flip side, we must believe in God not needing us lest we become like pagan idol worshippers or followers of superstitious practices. Rubbing coins for a god to make our wishes come true. Or making daily sacrifices to please an unpleasable piece of wood.
Oh, we Christians do try and fall into this practice. I heard a friend once say that as a new Christian she was led to believe if she didn’t end a prayer with “In Jesus’ Name,” then God wouldn’t hear her prayer. If we miss church, “God will be mad.” If we skip our daily 15 minutes of Bible reading, our day will be filled with quiet punishments.
The Truth and The Balm
We need to leave all those big and little lies behind us. God may not need us but the balm to that hard truth is that He still made us and loves us. He shows up, He blesses, He listens, He comforts. The worshippers of the goddess Artemis in Ephesus didn’t have that same security.
We find in Acts 19 the apostle Paul making quite a stir when, with the work of the Holy Spirit, he was making headway into spreading the Gospel. That not only angered all the artisans responsible for the booming Artemis idol trade but it also frightened them.
They were worried that without the constant bowing down and sacrificing then the goddess would lose her divine stature and authority.
But the One and Only True God doesn’t need us to rub our beads, wear our crosses, lay flowers at the church altar. Without us, He is still God. With or without belief, He reigns.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Acts 17:24-25.
This truth, my Friends, should bring you to your knees in loving worship. He’s not just a god who loves people. He is God who IS love. Between the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit they have all the love they ever need. But He chooses to bestow that love upon us. How glorious is that?
“Goodness (love, truth, beauty, holiness) is not some external standard He tries to emulate. He is goodness. God has no parts on which he depends.” Michael Reeves, President, Union School of Theology
He Doesn’t Have To
This Spring as the flowers around you begin to bloom and the colors explode in all their majesty remind yourself of this point: God didn’t have to. He could have been content in His own perfect triune situation. Instead, with an expert painter’s brush He created the world and everything in it. He then became the eternal steward of His creation!
The Westminster Confession of Faith (2.2) says this about God’s self-sufficiency:
“God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; … To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, he is pleased to require of them.”
God is contingent on no one and nothing. He is to be reverently feared while at the same time loved as a good, good Father. When you read the covenants of the Old Testament you’ll find a remarkable aspect of each.
Our opening OT verse today mentions the flaming pot moving amongst the animals split in two. It was a type of longstanding ceremony done in those times. But when done by man, man was responsible for the keeping or breaking of the deal. A broken deal meant death. But God’s covenants are made and kept by one faithful person, God. God makes the promise and God fulfills it. His promise is sufficient.
All we need to contribute is our gratefulness through obedience. That should help us not only have confidence in God but also allow us to rest easy that we don’t need to be in constant “please God” mode.
Instead, we can wake each day knowing the gifts we have received come without burden and therefore should be received with all honor and love.
