“I saw a curving river surrounded by grassy banks. The sun was setting and people were visiting on the river bank. I heard singing coming from the river. A young man was floating down the river on his back, singing a silly tune. He proceeded to climb out of the river onto the bank. He approached a beautiful young woman and got down on his knee to propose. However, he was fumbling for words. Catching on to what he was doing, the beautiful woman stopped him mid-sentence. She said to him, in a sarcastic manner, “Of course I’ll marry you! You obviously need me…”

This story is a dream I had a few weeks ago. I asked the Lord for an explanation and two nights later I woke up with these words from the Lord, “I don’t want you to just need me, I want you to want me.”

It is true that we all need God. We can’t ignore that fact, and it is not wrong to acknowledge it, but how often do we choose to come to God because we want Him? I realized while conversing with a friend the other day that we have it all wrong. So many people say the prayer and think they are saved. We preach that once saved always saved, but there is only partial truth to that statement. The Bible says that one can’t lose their Salvation, however, it never said that one can’t give it up. Jesus shared many parables concerning this issue.

Image by Lars Nissen from Pixabay

The girl in my dream only took the man because she thought he needed her. God didn’t need us, but He wanted us. He chose to create us for the purpose of having a relationship with Him. It’s not about getting out of hell; it is about being with God. Christ came to restore our relationship with God. So yes, we can’t lose our salvation, but we can give it away if we are not truly living in relationship with God. Salvation is a restoration of our relationship with the Lord and a promise that we get to be in relationship with Him for all eternity. One can say they believe in God, but if they don’t have a relationship with Him, then they aren’t saved. We have a choice: live for God or live for ourselves. If we are living for ourselves, then we are really living for the devil.

I titled this post “Forgotten Love” because I believe that many people have forgotten what it is to love and be loved by God. When we love someone, we don’t do things that we know hurt them. This includes things that we know are wrong. So, if we love God, we should not choose to live a sinful lifestyle because that is not loving God. It hurts Him to see us living in sin, and I would argue that if one can consciously live that way, they are living for themselves and don’t truly have a relationship with God.

Do you want God or do you only come to Him because you know you need Him? Do really have a relationship with God or are you just trying to get out of hell? If you don’t know Him, I hope that you choose to get to know Him today. What a beautiful thing to be created to love and be loved by the sovereign Lord of the universe. I couldn’t imagine a more wonderful existence…

*Featured image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay