A Selfish God?

I (Aimee) recently had the question put to me whether God is selfish since He created us to bring glory to Himself.  If everything we do is supposed to bring honor and glory to God, and that is the way that God wants it, the way that He designed it, does that make Him selfish?  

 

I hesitated to answer for a moment, and then I said, “no, that doesn’t make Him selfish.”  At the time that I gave the answer, I felt that to be the truth.  However, if my friend had asked me to elaborate on my answer I wouldn’t have been able to.  Since then, I’ve been thinking about it, and I still think that the answer is “no.”  But now I think that I can explain why I believe that.

 

Let me offer an illustration: 

 

Once, a couple of years ago, my friend and I were going out on a very bright, very hot, summer day with her kids (my God-kids). When we stopped to get gas, she asked me if I would put sunblock on the kids while she pumped the gas. My Goddaughter was still very young at this point, so she pretty much just sat there and let me rub the lotion on her. My Godson, however, acted as if I were rubbing acid into his skin. He screamed and cried the entire time as if I were torturing him.

 

I had taken a moment to do the whole, “let me explain to you why I need to do this and how you will be much happier having had it than you will be if you don’t have it.” Usually he’s one of those kids for whom logic can work well. But still, he’s a kid, and there are times that logic just doesn’t fly. This was definitely one of those times. So, I informed him that I was going to put the sunblock on him anyway, and then I proceeded to do it. And he proceeded to scream and cry, as I already said.

 

When my friend was done pumping gas, she got in the car and started apologizing to me for asking me to do what turned out to be the harder job. I told her not to worry about it. I said that I had no problem doing what was best for them, whether they liked it or not. I can be fully sympathetic to their tears when they are hurt in some way. But tears aren’t going to turn me away from doing something that they need.

 

God is like that. Have you ever thought about how many times God does things for our own good, whether we like it or not. It’s a parental thing. When we do it, we reflect Him. It’s part of that whole being-made-in-the-image-of-God-thing.

 

So, the next time things don’t go exactly the way that you planned, take the time to think about the possibility that God may have just done what was best for you, whether you liked it or not. It just might be what happened.

 

Similarly, God draws us to Him and designed everything to bring Him glory because that’s what’s best for us. If our focus is anywhere else but on Him, then we aren’t going to be as healthy and happy as we could be. God is God. He created everything. He is the only One worthy of praise and glory and honor. Placing our trust and hope and love and devotion anywhere else would put us out of whack because anything other than God will always let us down.

 

God isn't selfish. He loves you enough to die for you.