Limits and Needs

The God who made the world and everything in it,

 being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 

nor is he served by human hands, 

as though he needed anything, 

since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 

Acts 17: 24–25 

Jen WIlkin

(from the chapter on God's self-sufficiency):

Creating and sustaining all things, he is himself created and sustained by none. For all eternity he is perfectly provided for in and of himself, needless of any aid, unflagging in strength, never hungry or thirsty, experiencing no lack. Nothing and no one outside of himself offers aid to him. Because he created everything, nothing he has created could possibly be needful to him for his existence. If it were, then like him, it would have always existed. Our God is self-sufficient, needed by all, needful of nothing.

If God needed anything at all outside himself, he would be capable of being controlled by that need. A need is a limit, and as we have seen, God has no limits. Because he needs nothing outside himself, he cannot be controlled or coerced, manipulated or blackmailed by another who possesses what he lacks. This is good news for us. 

We were created to need both God and others. We deny this to our peril. We are not needy because of sin; we are needy by divine design. Certainly, we can need in sinful ways, and we habitually confuse needs with wants, but we were not created to be self-sufficient. Nor were we re-created in Christ to be so. Sanctification is the process of learning increasing dependence, not autonomy.