Ihave been taught from my youth that God is the self-existing and self-sufficient One. And He is, indeed. Yet the Bible tells me “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and at once I am confronted with a profundity. If God is love then God has a need, for love must always have an object. That need is certainly fulfilled in God Himself, for God is a Trinity and each Person of the Trinity is loved by the others. And yet the Bible says God loves the world (John 3:16). He loves not only Himself; He also loves the human race, and He loves me!
If God loves me, He needs me, for the object of one’s love is necessary to the happiness and welfare of the lover. The Lover of the souls of men needs lovers; the worshiped One needs worshipers. When Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, “Give Me a drink” (John 4:7), He was expressing not merely a physical need but an emotional one, as the sequence of the story reveals. Love was in need of love; the water of life was in need of satisfaction. How else can I explain the convulsive weeping of Jesus as He overlooked the city of Jerusalem from one of its hills and realized that they had rejected Him? It was love frustrated and tormented, love denied its rightful objects.
How often I have treated my quiet time as “Give me” time, when I am concerned with my emptiness, my weakness, my weariness, and my sinfulness. My, my, my! I fail to see that Jesus Christ also has a need. He needs my love, worship, obedience, and above all, my company. I need to sit by His side as a dear friend, sharing His heart secrets as He shares mine, rejoicing in the mutual balance of our love. Lord, let me not deny You that small cup of water, and that simple invitation, “Give Me a drink!”
“And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’” (Matthew 22:37).
Daily with the King 