Greetings All,
This weeks "thought" comes from the book, "Practicing the Presence of People - How We Learn to Love," by Mike Mason. Those who listened to the Job series of sermons heard me mention his name frequently as I quoted from another one of his books entitled, "The Gospel
According To Job." I enjoy reading him because he often thinks outside the box (and in my humble opinion is often more scriptural for having done so)!
This thought has to do with love and the difference between wanting people and needing people. I trust you will enjoy it!
"God did not create people out of need but because He wanted to, just for the love of it. Strictly speaking, I do not know that I am needed in this world. But as God's child I do know that I am wanted. It seems to me that the world could carry on quite well without me.
Would it make any difference if there was one less star in the heavens? No, that extra star is not there because it is needed, but because it is wanted. It is there because Someone wanted it.
Knowing I am wanted, both by God and by other people, is more mysterious and freeing than being needed. Similarly, it is better for me to want God and to want people than to relate out of need. Want is a purer and a higher idea than need (or than should, ought, or must). Christian growth involves eliminating all the shoulds and the oughts from
life and replacing them with wants...
The way to follow Christ is to peel off the crust and to pursue what we truly want. What is this deepest of all desires? It is nothing short of love. To love is to want others as we ourselves long to be wanted..."
My prayer is that people will sense the "want" you have for them, rather than any perceived need, and thus sense the godly lovethat eminates from your heart. Mason is right: God does not love or create or redeem out of any need in Himself. He has no needs! He did or does so simply because He wanted to. And when we love others for that same reason - simply because we want to - we display a love that is godly in nature.
In His Love, Pastor Jeff
Dr. Jeffrey F. Evans
