Is God Selfish?

IS IT SELFISH FOR GOD TO MAKE US WORSHIP HIM?

If your heart ever troubles you with this question, I ask you, reader, does God need our worship that it would somehow make Him happier, more whole, or more powerful? What significance do we have in ourselves that we could somehow improve the experience of an already all-powerful, all-loving, perfectly righteous King who can create universes with the breath of His lips?

None. The answer is none.

We cannot give God anything. The only thing we have given to our Creator is the pain of a child betraying his father. Our God created a masterpiece of a world, filled with goodness and light and beauty, secrets for us to uncover, breathtaking artistry for us to drink in. He gave it to us--to care for, to explore, to uncover every wonder He hid inside of it to invite us more into who He is, to know this Great One who reigns over it all.

And we threw it away. We broke it, stomped on His gift, and gave it over to darkness: this world into which the Ancient One poured His heart.

And we ask the question: is it selfish for God to ask us to worship Him?

It is the same question by which our answer allowed darkness into the world. For when the serpent told Eve that God was holding out on her, she chose to believe that He was selfish for doing so, and so she broke away from this relationship filled with perfect trust, love, tenderness and beauty. All so she could take hold of that which God would not give her.

Any self-seeking person would have turned away from us. This back-stabbing action of ours would have made a selfish person say, "it's not worth it." But even after our betrayal, this Great King pursued us into the darkness itself. He, the God of Light and Goodness entered the brokenness and evil that held the world He created for good. The Author of Life died, that He might defeat death and breathe new life into the hearts of men again.

No, it is not because of some self-seeking egotism that the Great I AM requires our worship. It is because when we turn our hearts to seek Him, and to know His goodness and light again, we return to the selves He created us to be. When we worship Him, He can draw near to us and begin to heal the brokenness caused by sin, shine light into the dark corners of our hearts, and breathe Life into the dead depths of our souls.