God doesn't want us for our talents, our time, our gifts or our energy. He doesn't need any of those things. He is himself eternal, infinite in power, infinite in wisdom and capability. He is himself absolute perfection in himself, not by anything that he does, seeks or finds, but in whom he is. He doesn't need us to be or become anything, because he already is. He is glorious.
And as such, it is not because of anything that he can gain from us that he sent his Son to die for us. It is out of pure love. He does not seek what belongs to us, but he seeks us, ourselves, that he may lavish his love upon us.
Christian service is a wonderful thing; but not because we are giving something to God in order to add to him. He is no Pharaoh, who demands a daily load from us, and is ready to beat us if we do not produce. He is wonderful in himself, and out of his generosity and goodness desires that we partake in his divine life. He saves us so that we might be joined to him, through our union with his Son. God so loved the world, that he gave, and in that giving, takes us to himself. If we see, we will give too: not because a quota of bricks has been demanded from us, but because such a glorious, all-encompassing, all-consuming divine life cannot but overflow in the same way to others: not because we want something out of them, but because the love that is in us, by its very nature, must flow out to them too. That is its nature, because it is God's nature. God loves us, not because of what is in us, but because of what is in him. For that reason, it is a love that cannot fail, no matter how much we do. He did not want us because he reasoned we would never fail. He wanted us so that his life might swallow up and overcome and dissolve all our failures, replacing them with his perfect love.
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