Wednesday, 15 July 2009

  • God: Infinite Need, Infinite Capacity

    poppy by miss poppy

    I believe God has one need.

    Before you start crying "She's a witch! Burn her!" let me explain. I believe God's one need is for Himself. As three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have infinite need for one another, and that infinite need is infinitely fulfilled by each other. To recap, I believe God needs Himself infinitely and fulfills Himself infinitely.

    Enter humans. For me, it has always been a little tough to understand why God would create beings other than Himself who somehow need more and more of Him taking over to function. It seemed like a paradox. I wasn't sure I wanted to be swallowed up in that. And then it hit me.

    As a human being, I have limits. God's relationship with me is that of an infinite being pouring into a finite container. It's like the ocean going into a pail. Pretty soon, that pail's going to have all it can handle.

    HOWEVER, God's capacity for Himself is infinite. The ocean can keep pouring into the ocean, and it's not going to fill up.

    My greatest desire in life is for more of God. I'm like the pail, though. In myself I can only take so much before I fill up. Only by being taken into Him, becoming part of Him, and having more of Him flowing through me can I have the capacity for more of Him. The more of Him I have, the more I can hold. His infinite capacity for Himself becomes mine. And my need grows as well.

    I cannot think of anything that is more absolutely captivating than the idea of pure Love, of the Trinity that is ever needing and ever fulfilling. By allowing God to take me over, I become part of that infinite dance, as my need for and capacity to experience God grows. And, I become more and more who I am, the person I was created to be.

Comments (9)

  • ChrisRusso@xanga

    Interesting.  This sounds very Timothy Keller.


    "Each of the divine persons centers upon the others.  None demands that the others revolve around him.  Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them... That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love..."


    --Keller, The Reason for God

  • Pickwick12@xanga

    @ChrisRusso@xanga - (Miss Poppy here) Very true. I loved that book and was definitely influenced by it.

  • Pass_the_Aura@xanga

    Well, if she weighs the same as a duck.... 

    I suppose I shouldn't complain about the inadequacies of the word "need", as any words are inadequate to conceptualize the Trinity and I haven't got a better alternative. I certainly do appreciate the concept of Selfless Love as an essential and integral divine attribute.This is good.

  • designandart

    I have an idea that when God created us He loved us even more than He loved his angels. I don't know why. But He wanted us to love Him too. To show our love for Him He asked us to not do just one thing. By obeying we would've shown God we loved Him. Unfortunately we did not. We need Him I think more than we sometimes realize.


    You have written something profound.

  • Pickwick12@xanga

    @designandart - (Miss Poppy here) Thank you so much! That is encouraging

  • Malakai

    This is so wonderful. And while we are
    talking about wonderful shots, have you already heard the good news
    about, Maria del Carmen Bousada? Maria del Carmen Bousada is no more.
    She has ceased to be. She wasn't famous for anything until the last few
    years of her life, when she was touted as the World's Oldest Mother,
    giving birth at the age of 66.  The single woman from Cadiz, Spain used
    a cash advance and became pregnant via in vitro fertilization, lying
    about her age – while concealing breast cancer! The cancer spread and
    took her life 3 years after birthing twin boys. She had no regrets
    about having boys at such an advanced age, as she believed she would
    live well past 80.  Maria
    del Carmen Bousada
    will never be known to her
    children, or get cheap loans for ill advised pregnancies again.

  • gene546@xanga
    You’re totally mistaken regarding the word “need” applied to God. No place in the bible is stated that God has infinite need for the other to persons of the Trinity. For though, there are three persons, there is absolutely one essence. Now, all the creation is the work “ad-extra” of the Trinity, and it means that God has no need at all. Creation is the manifestation of the Love of God, and not a necessity. Gene546

  • Pickwick12@xanga

    @gene546@xanga - (Miss Poppy here) I completely agree that creation is not a necessity. However, I believe each Person of the Trinity is necessary to the others. Otherwise, they wouldn't exist, since God is exactly what is most perfect. If He is Three, then Three must be necessary to His perfection, since He's nothing that isn't perfect. I also completely believe God is one essence. One God, Three Persons. Thanks for your engaging comment.

  • gene546
    Since there is only one essence in the three persons, how is that God needs his own essence? Or you mat say that the other way around: three persons in one essence. Now there is only one God right? It fallows then that God needs his own essence and that cannot be, and being God his own essence how is that He needs of what His essence is? I don’t know how the word “need” fits into the God’s essence. As for the words unwritten those are a mystery to me, as the word “need” in God. Gene546

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About the Author

  • misspoppy
    • From: misspoppy
    • About Me: I am a senior in college. I love to knit, watch K-dramas, and bake. The point of my life is to love God, and I write about the ups and downs of that journey. Philippians 3:8-11: 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
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