Ask Pastor Mike Live

Focal Point Ministries: Cindy, should we need God or want God? I think both, but do you think God has a preference? How do we view that correctly? That's an interesting question. Should we need God or want God? Both. I think it's both. You said it, and you think it's both. It is both.

Here's the thing, Cindy, I don't care if you think you should need God, you do need God. Here's what it says in Acts chapter 17: "In him we live and move and have our being." He gives us life and breath and everything else. There are two phrases from Acts 17.

Cindy, you just typed that out on YouTube. You typed those letters out, "Should we need God?" You typed that sentence out. A monkey could not do that. A caterpillar couldn't do it, a butterfly couldn't do it, and a horse couldn't do it. You did that. How did the synapse in your brain send signals down your spinal cord, down your arms, and properly get your fingers to do that, or your thumbs if you were on your phone?

How did that all happen? How did that work? A flower couldn't do it, and a rock couldn't do it. God is empowering you. He is giving you life and breath and your neurologic system to do that. You need God or you cannot even ask the question. You cannot live another day. Or as it says in Colossians, Christ, the second person of the Godhead, holds all things together.

He is the cohesion of the universe. You cannot do this without him. Every atheist needs God, or he does not have a chance to sit around and mock God. He cannot sit there with his bourbon and his cigar saying that God does not exist. He cannot exist without God. So, yes, you need God. Everybody needs God.

Here is the thing: most people do not want God. Every atheist needs God, but they do not want God. Every agnostic needs God, but they think they do not even want God because they do not think they need God. Everyone needs him. To understand that you need God leads you to thanksgiving because you realize you should need God.

If I know I need God, I am going to start to be thankful for God actually providing what I need. Everything that we have that is good is coming from God, and therefore we become worshipers. This is what Romans chapter one is all about. We recognize the truth about God and that he is the underlying cohesion of the universe. He gives us everything, and therefore we are led to give thanks.

The non-Christian does not give thanks, and that really is the difference between those who recognize God and those who do not. Here is what it says in scripture: the fullness of everything on this planet belongs to God. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and all the people that dwell in it." That is what the Bible says.

Wanting God then is saying, "I want to know God. I want to know God, I want to understand God, I would like to understand what he thinks, I would like to understand what he wants, and I would like to be more knowledgeable and closer to God than I have ever been."

So, they are two basically different things, and I think one is predicate to the other. One is the foundation for the other, and they are kind of different in that regard. I guess you would not ask the question if you did not think they were different, Cindy. That is a profound question, it is a good question, and I would like to talk more about that question.