Effective Perspective - Just Because You Love Him
- Benjamin Nichols
- May 7, 2019
- 2 min read
TL;DR - God doesn't need our help, He wants our help.
I was raking up grass clippings one Sunday afternoon. My daughter wanted very much to help.
She's 3.
She is not helpful when it comes to raking grass clippings. But she wanted to be where I was and help me do what I was doing. Just because she loves me.
I could have done the job much faster and easier without her help. But I love my daughter and I love that she wanted to help me. So I celebrated her imperfect help.
Remember the wedding at Cana? If not, here's the short recap:
Jesus went to a wedding.
They ran out of wine.
Jesus' mother Mary got Jesus involved.
Jesus had the servants fill six huge water jars with... water.
Jesus turned that water into wine.
Party on.
Read the story, it's cool, and there is a lot that can be gleaned from it. One thing sticks out to me this morning though.
Jesus did not need to have the servants fill the jars with water.
Jesus is the Word who was present at the beginning, through Whom everything was created. He created the stone that the water jars were made of. He created the water the servants put into the jars. He created the grapes that went into making the wine that ran out, and he created the people present at the wedding.
Jesus did not need anyone's help to provide the wine for the celebration.
Yet He told the servants to go fill the jars with water before He turned it to wine.
Why?
Good question.
As with many things in scripture,
it is problematic to assign a human why to a divine decision.
God tells us that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.
Are we to never know God's reasoning?
Not at all! Every book in the Bible points to one glorious theme: The revelation of the nature and personality of God.
He wants us to know Him. He wants us to seek Him. He wants us to have a relationship with Him; the real kind. The kind that involves talking and listening and doing things together; even mundane things.
God wants this relationship with you so much that He planned for it from before the beginning, just because He loves you.
Carefully, prayerfully and through the filter of God's Word, I offer this perspective.
Jesus telling the servants to fill the pots with water sends an important message straight into your life today:
God wants your help.
Please don't misread that! God doesn't need you to help, just as He doesn't need me to write this article.
He wants your help.
He is your loving Heavenly Father. He is patient and kind and generous and very much remembers that you are only on this earth for a moment. He wants that moment to be filled with purpose and He knows that the greatest purpose you can possibly have is to devote yourself to His service.
This, at its heart, is worshiping in Spirit and in Truth. Love God and respond to His love with action.
What now?
Consider your life as a response to God's grace and answer this question: What can you do today to help God, just because you love Him?
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