You probably already know this, but God doesn’t need you for anything, we were created for His pleasure, (Rev. 4:11) but not as an additional pleasure, so to speak, not as a pleasure that He could not do without.
This is a very difficult concept for many to understand, to be left out of the equation, to not be needed is not a good feeling for those who need to be needed. There is not one thing that the Almighty needs us for, He is self-sustaining and self-sufficient, there is no such thing as need with God. When this truth enters into us as reality, the word “Sovereign” takes on the meaning that it was always intended to have, applicable to only One, the Most High, and along with the understanding of that word reserved for Him and Him alone, the word “Grace” begins to make sense.
Two of the most difficult verses to corelate together in the Scriptures have to do with our free will and the Sovereignty of God, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” (Eph. 2:8) and “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) The key words here are “through faith” and “chosen,” the first seems to infer free will, while the second implies none whatsoever.
Another that goes with these two is Romans 9:22, “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” Men of God many times wiser than myself have contemplated these verses and others like them on and off for the majority of their lives, and nearly all of them will give their opinion of them. We must include here Exodus 14:4, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.” And “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
Do we have free will, or do we not, are some chosen, as the Word of God says, are some vessels of wrath prepared?
There are some places in the Scriptures where I have determined that my opinion doesn’t matter, that God is Sovereign, that He does what He wants when He wants, and my only reply should be, “Thy will be done.” We are told that we can find the knowledge of God, (Prov. 2:5) we are told to have the mind of Christ, (1 Cor. 2:16) but we will never be able to think like God thinks, it isn’t possible. Nor should we want to. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8)
We were created to glorify God, and while we should make it one of our main concerns to contemplate Him, to seek His face, we should never try to figure out why He does what He does, that is not the place of a servant, and if the day comes that He decides to call you His friend, and perhaps even let you call Him your friend, we will still never understand Him fully, it will never happen.
We were created for His pleasure, and He finds pleasure in us when we obey Him, there is no other way, there are no rewards in heaven for good intentions. We are not needed by God for anything, He does not need people, or even angels to sing praise to His name, He doesn’t need us to go out and witness for Him, anything He wants anytime He wants it is in Him. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” (Col. 1:16)
You have two options here, you can begin to realize the love that He has for you, for not only does He love that which He does not need, that serves no addition to who He is, but He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, so that His wrath would no longer abide upon us. (John 3:36) Or you can start to feel sorry for yourself, you can let your ego and pride begin to rule you, you can continue to believe that you have great value in His eyes. If you are that person, I would ask you to please finish this sentence for me, “If it wasn’t for me, God wouldn’t be able to ___” I would be very interested in your answer.
