12 Feb What Do You Think God Wants From You?
Have you ever wondered what it is that God wants from us? He doesn’t need anything from us, so why did He create us? What does He want from us?
Well, God created us to love us. In 1 John 4:10, we read, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us…”
In Ephesians 2, we read, “…God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us… made us alive together with Christ… so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us…
Think of that. That is why He created us. He wanted to demonstrate His love to us.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, ““If we doubt that God loves us, it is only because we have a trivial definition of love. We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest well pleased.”
So, based on the fact that God created us to love us, what does He want from us in return?
He wants us to love Him.
That is why, in Matthew 22:38, Jesus told us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.”
So… all God wants of us is for us to love Him? Amazing!
The Parable of Team Hoyt
Not too long ago, I read of a wonderful parable of this kind of love.
Rick Hoyt entered the world in 1962 with cerebral palsy after the umbilical cord had choked off oxygen to his brain. At the time, disabled children were typically sent to institutions. But his parents, Dick and Judy Hoyt, were determined to give their son the same opportunities as able-bodied kids.
Though Rick couldn’t walk or speak, and at first glance appeared mentally challenged, they soon discovered there wasn’t a thing wrong with his mind. They enrolled him in public school, took him sledding, watched sports with him, and treated him as normally as possible.
A computer was created to allow Rick to use his limited physical abilities to type, and he was finally able to communicate with others. He was now, metaphorically speaking, off and running.
When he was fifteen, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a schoolmate who had been paralyzed in an accident. So, Dick pushed Rick for 5 miles in his wheelchair, finishing next to last. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”
That statement took over Dick’s life, and he dedicated himself to giving Rick that feeling as often as possible.
Since then, Rick Hoyt and his father, Dick, better known as Team Hoyt, have crossed more than 1,000 finish lines together, including 27 Boston Marathons, seven Ironman Triathlons, a coast-to-coast trek, and countless shorter races. But their impact goes way beyond running. They’ve embodied the message that disability is not synonymous with limitation and that love can move mountains, and have started a foundation that spreads that message to the world.
“I was running for Rick, who longed to be an athlete but had no way to pursue his passion,” Dick writes in their book, Devoted. “I wasn’t running for my own pleasure. I was simply loaning my arms and legs to my son.”
Rick went on to graduate from Boston University, where he lived on campus, posted solid grades, and socialized with the best of them. With a degree in special education, Rick works at Boston College, helping develop computer-aided mechanical systems.
Dick is no longer able to run marathons and other demanding races, so others now push Rick, and the “Team Hoyt” non-profit organization continues to give leadership to others to help disabled children/people lead more productive and enjoyable lives.
In the last chapter of their book, Devoted, Rick writes, “I have a list of things I would do for you if I was not disabled. Tops on that list: I would do my best to race the World Championship Ironman pulling, pushing and pedaling you. Then I would push you in the Boston Marathon…Thanks may be shallow. But I have to thank you for being so devoted to me. I am just as devoted to you.”
What Team Hoyt Can Teach Us About God
Here are some lessons that Team Hoyt can teach us about our relationship with God.
- There is nothing God needs that we can give Him
There is not a thing Dick needs that Rick can give him. But Rick has given his dad his love and devotion. He cannot even demonstrate his devotion. He can only express it. But that’s enough. Rick’s love has filled his dad’s life with joy.
In the same way, there is nothing God needs that we can give Him. But He wants our love, and God is pleased when we love Him.
- God first loved us, as the basis for our loving Him
The remarkable Team Hoyt story started when Dick first devoted himself to Rick to help him live as normal a life as possible, and to do the unimaginable… push him in a wheel chair for thousands of miles in marathons and iron man competitions over a lifetime… to help Rick feel as though he is not handicapped. Dick gave his life to Rick, and in return, though he cannot do anything to demonstrate it, Rick – in his heart – gave his life back to Dick.
In the same way, God first loved us, providing the example and giving us the opportunity for us to give our gratitude and love to God.
- We achieve our greatest purpose and joy when we love God as He loved us.
Rick might have ended up a virtual vegetable, institutionalized and left to a life of deprivation and isolation. Instead, he has become a worldwide phenomenon, impacting millions of others. If Rick were ungrateful, if he were demanding, if he were selfish and critical, his father would not be so blessed, he would not be so happy, and the world would not be so impacted. It is as Rick responded in kind to his father’s love that all the magic happened. His response to his father’s love has lifted him to a quality of life and a depth of meaning otherwise not possible.
In the same way, we achieve our heights of purpose and joy when we give ourselves back to God, loving Him as He loved us.
Conclusion
God has given Himself completely to us. And all He wants in return is for us to return the gesture… to give ourselves completely to Him. There’s not a thing that God needs that we can give Him. But, we can give Him our love and devotion. And that is all God wants.
When we respond to God’s love and give ourselves to Him in return, God is pleased with our love, and we are lifted to a level of purpose, meaning and joy unimaginable any other way.
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