As we get into a regular posting schedule around here, look for twice-weekly updates, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today we’re reflecting on a passage from 2 Timothy chapter 2. Be blessed as you read!

God does not need man, God desires man.

In order to accomplish his objectives in this world, man is unnecessary.  God desires man to be involved because in that involvement man can witness the Father at work.  However, our involvement is not assistance, but rather participation.  We often possess a distorted perspective of our role in the works of God in this world.

We bear witness to the works of God in our immediate surroundings and  inflate our role in the process.  We reason ourselves into believing that without our openness, without our obedience or without our righteousness, the outcome that we witnessed would not have been possible.

These are lies.  The truth is that the healing or change that we were made privy to was prepared and put into effect far before God called us into the picture.  The truth is that God did not need us, so much as he included us.  Thus, the healing or change that we witnessed was as much for our own benefit as it was the benefit of the one being healed or transformed.

God’s desire to include sometimes has very little to do with the person we witness experiencing the healing or change.  God’s desire to include us has everything to do with our being included in a power-presentation of the Father and his majesty.  This is a moment we are meant to see not so that we could stake any claim in what we saw.  We were brought in as witnesses, so that we could set out and tell the world about it.  Our involvement in the works of God in this world is for us, but never by us.  We are involved in God’s work so that we can build upon our faith with the truth that God is for us and nothing can stand against us.

God desires for us to be involved in his work and be about his business.  He does not desire to work in private or keep us at a distance.  His desire is to provide us every opportunity to see him work.  While it would be easy for him to work alone and accomplish his goals in private, this is a position he has never adopted and never intends to.  His desire from the beginning was to walk with us, to have us work alongside him.  This desire comes out of his love for us, and his love for our company, a love that can only be made complete when we know him to the point of knowing what he is capable of. Knowing him so well that we are completely overwhelmed by how efficiently and powerfully he works while still making time for his children throughout.  He calls us into his work daily, not for us to help him finish his work, but merely for us to be with him while he works.