Jesus didn’t say, “Need the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength.” He said “Love.”

God doesn’t need us. Need is counter to His nature. And I would like to suggest that His greatest desire for us is not that we would need Him. Stick with me for a moment… 

I don’t think He created us so we would need Him. I don’t believe His end goal was to have a bunch of needy, desperate, starving sons and daughters. I believe that His desire for us is that we would know His love so that we could love Him… and then love as He does.

When Jesus came and lived among us, it wasn’t so He could set us straight on how much we needed Him. Need was obvious before Adam and Eve took their first breath and even more clear after they ate the forbidden fruit. The Old Testament is a tribute to need. Need was everywhere and it consumed us.

I believe Jesus came to reveal the answer – Fathers love. He came to give us access to Love; receiving and giving, beholding and becoming. Its always been about love. Why, because Love trumps need, love is the answer.

Need isn’t evil and I want to make it clear that God our Father is perfectly OK with need, He even taught us to pray about need, “give us this day our daily bread”. It’s a healthy part of our relationship with Him – in fact, it’s even a part of our love language. That said, it’s not the destination.

When Madeleine was born, need was the language of her love. She needed Karen and me for everything and we revealed our love by meeting all her needs. But Maddy turned 1 and then 2 and so on. And as she matures into a stunning young woman, our relationship continues to evolve. No longer is need the only way we communicate. Need has become less the language of our love and naturally so. From a parents perspective, I will forever be OK with her need, I love her! But my greatest desire isn’t that she needs me, I want her love – I was created for it!

There is a beautiful foundational revelation regarding need. But as we mature in our Fathers love, we begin to understand that His greatest desire is to be loved.

Did I marry Karen because I needed her? Absolutely. But if my core value for Karen is that she meets my needs then we are in trouble real fast. If a relationship is built solely on needs met then it will collapse into a legal partnership, a business relationship, a sterile agreement to cohabitation, or an in-securing repetitive cycle of dashed hopes.

Marriage is meant to be a covenant of love. When love is the core value, the relationship is not about “what can I get,” it’s about “what can I give.” What’s amazing is that when love is the foundation need is met.

This is a radical thought but what if God really doesn’t want a relationship founded on need but instead on love? What if the direction He has given us to “Love the Lord your God…” is an invitation to let Him love us perfectly? What if “God is perfect love?” What if Love is meant to be the foundation of every relationship starting first with Him? What if He first loved us and we actually could only love to the extent that we know His love? What if Jesus death and resurrection was the foundational revelation that set us free from need and into a relationship with love? What if when Love is the focus need is always met?

What if need is not a reality in the Kingdom of heaven and we are called to live heaven here, now?

I believe our Father has given us all that He is so we can love in the same way He does. As we are transformed by His love, we respond to need from the richness of our heavenly inheritance – His love nature. Suddenly needs are not just met, they are miraculously redeemed. The reality of heaven transforms the reality on earth. Fear bends the knee and Love wins. These love moments become rally points for revival – testimonies of His nature.

We have been invited into a perfect love that grows and matures, that sets free and saves, that transforms and empowers, that releases Fathers DNA and expands His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is both the destination and the foundation upon which we are to live here on earth and heavens revelation is love.

I believe we are all journeying into a greater revelation of Love that we would become transformed and empowered to release the need trumping power of Love here and now.

Blessings on the journey.

If you would like to read more about Love and Need you can check out Need < Love

Jason Clark is a writer, speaker and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

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