Why Does God Want You?

God wants you. That’s why Jesus told His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). We are here to extend God's invitation to you.

If God wants you, it's not because He wants anything from you. There is nothing you and I have that God can possibly want from us. Besides, all that we have is from God, from whom all blessings flow. Then, why did God create man? Necessity may be the mother of invention for man. Not so with a self-existing, all-sufficient God. He made us in His image and gave us the capacity to know Him because He desired us to experience His joy and love as an infinitely joyful and loving God.

Many view God as a cosmic Killjoy. That’s not the Bible’s message. Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10); "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11)! So Paul says to Christians, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4)!

Reflecting this spirit, an early church Father, St. Irenaeus, famously said, "The glory of God is man fully alive; the life of a man is the vision of God." We know that there is a world of difference between merely existing and being fully alive. Are you merely existing or are you fully alive? You are in your youth. You are healthy and active. You have dreams and goals you are pursuing. You have good friends. You may even have a boyfriend or a girlfriend that you are passionately in love with. Does this mean that you are fully alive?

"The life of a man is the vision of God." These words reflect what God said in Deuteronomy 8:3: "man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Man is not just a collection of atoms and molecules. As much as man is a physical being, he is also a spiritual being, endowed with the capacity and desire to know his Maker! To be fully alive, then, we must be alive in our spirit as well! And being spiritually alive means more than just being "a spiritual person." It means delighting in the God of the Bible as our greatest joy--"Rejoice in the Lord always!"

Can you rejoice in God if you do not take delight in Him and love Him? The problem is that, in our natural condition, we are "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Spiritually dead, we do not love the One we ought to love more than anything. How can a dead person make himself alive? He can’t. He needs help from outside of himself.

The good news is that God did! What we deserved was God's just punishment for our rebellion against Him. But God did not leave us to perish in our sin and misery. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [i.e., Jesus Christ], that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). To reconcile us to God, Jesus paid for our sins with His own life. And He rose again from the dead, having conquered sin and death once and for all! And by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit working through the preaching of the gospel, He is able to give us a new heart so we can love God and take delight in Him.

This is how much God wants you! It's the greatest of all mysteries that the all-sufficient God should desire us so much! But that's God's amazing love for you! Would you not respond to this greatest love of all? Confess your sin to God and put your trust in Jesus Christ! When you do, you will share in the deep, lasting joy of God, even through difficult times. For through His death and resurrection, Jesus has taken the sting out of death, bitterness out of our sorrow. And our joy will be made full when He brings us home to heaven where we will drink His joy, not just from a cup but from an ocean-depth!