Some people believe that it is rather egotistical of God to demand that he has worshippers. This seems to many people to show God as a kind of overly insecure version of a teenage rocker, who has had a few knockbacks from girls in the past (before he was famous perhaps), and now needs the constant love and adoration of his fans to cover over these previous rejections!
So this begs the question, is God an insecure ageing weather man up in the clouds, desperately looking for an ego-boast, before his fragile little heart can take it no more and he goes to sit in a corner and quietly cry himself to sleep because he is not popular?
The Sufficiency of the Trinity
One of the first things that we learn about God in the bible is his Trinitarian nature. This is what Christians refer to as the holy trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although the word ‘Trinity’ is not actually used in the Bible the concept is very clearly implicit within it. In Genesis 1:26 we see that God says he is creating people in ‘Our Image’ clearly showing that God is plural. Please do not allow this to confuse you, there is one God but three persons within the Godhead. In Matthew 3:16-17 we see another time where at Jesus’ baptism all three persons are present in differing roles.
We will discuss the concept of the trinity at greater length in our up and coming article: What is The Trinity?
The main thing for now to understand is that God the father actually lives in perfect community, with the other two people, Jesus and the person of The Holy Spirit and has done for all of eternity. Because of this perfect relationship (and therefore perfect love) which is experienced, there is no need within God for anything. He is completely self-satisfied (Acts 17:25). He is not requiring us to believe in him for some kind of ego-boast. God is not an ego-maniac.
Isn’t the universe enough for God?
It was out of this state of perfect love that God decided to express himself by creating the universe, and everything else that we see before us, the vegetation, the animals and also ourselves. It may seem surprising but in this vast universe the pinnacle of God’s creation was actually men and women (Genesis 1:26-27). Regardless of whether you believe that this came about through God creating each creature on earth through a process of evolution, or by special creation, one thing we can be sure is that we are no accident. The writer of Psalms says that we have been ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). God has taken great care to make sure of our very existence, and the very details of our life.
We need God
The reality is that we have been made with a desire for eternal things (Ecc 3:11). The meta-narrative (or over-arching story) of the bible is that despite the perfect creation in the beginning, we have turned our backs on God, and have fallen short of his perfect standard (Romans 3:23). This means that both our lives and the world we live in is no longer what it should be. This shows us that we need God, not that he needs us. He has promised to renew all things through the Jesus Christ.
We all have a desire to worship
It is very clear that as humans we all worship something. It may sound very primitive and like the kind of thing that people did in ancient times, but if we are not talking about simply bowing down to statues then it becomes obvious.
We all give our best time, money, dreams and passions to something, and this can become the thing that we use to identify ourselves by. This could be absolutely anything, and more often than not it’s a good thing which we have gone and made the ultimate thing.
One example would be having a relationship with someone. This can in itself be a good thing, but if we make this the ultimate thing in our lives then we end up disappointed because the other person may fail us, dump us or even if it lasts, will never treat you perfectly and will not save you for eternity. God on the other hand will never desert you, loves you perfectly as a father and offers you eternal life. He is the only one that we should bow down worship.
Conclusion
The early church father St. Augustine once said, ‘Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in him’. Far from God being needy, it turns out that we need him for fulfilment in this life, and in order to be transformed and to experience eternal glory and perfection in the next. Because God is a completely just judge, he can’t simply turn a blind eye to all the evil that goes on. It had to be paid for, on the cross, by Jesus. If we put our trust in him then we can know this wonderful God personally (Romans 10:9).
