“Shouldn’t we want to be close to God simply because we love Him? I mean, you talk about coming into His presence to meet your needs or to find “the good stuff.” Isn’t that a selfish reason to be with Jesus?”
These are great questions. My answer is both yes and no. Yes, we should come to Jesus simply because we love Him. No, it’s not selfish to come to Him to have our needs met. Jesus created us with three basic needs that only He could meet. This is important to realize. He put them in us. And only He can fulfill them.
The question now is, “Where will I go to have those God-given needs met?” Isn’t it true that when we turn our backs on Jesus (aka sin or choose to meet our needs our way) we destroy our lives? Therefore, isn’t also true that when we choose to stay in His presence (aka listen to and follow Him), we’ll experience real living, which is what He said He came to bring (Jn. 15:11)?
Jesus said that if we love Him we’ll obey Him (Jn. 14:15). This entire process of being able to love God was made possibly by Jesus at the cross, at the tomb, and coming back from that tomb. He made it possible for us to come into the presence real love, the Father, the one who makes us whole, which is also a partial definition of holiness.
The real question is, “Will I love Jesus enough to come to Him?” If I love Him, I will come to Him. If I come to Him, will trust Him enough to listen to and obey Him? If I obey Him, I will have my needs met. The entire process started with loving Him and ends with us being made whole again (i.e. our needs are met).
“S”et Free Nowww