Acts 17:22-28
Paul Talks to the Athenians about God
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
St. Paul told us, while he was in Athens, that God needs nothing from us and is not served by man...St. Paul said this "The God who made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands...And He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything...Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else...From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands...God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us...‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’...As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring."...
God wants us to seek Him and find Him...God gives everyone life and breath and everything else we need to sustain ourselves...So we need Him and should always be wanting to be with Him, knowing that He supplies our basic needs and everything else...We should first seek God, His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and the things we worry about will be given to us as well...Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself...Each day has enough trouble of its own...
So as we read Scripture, we see that there is a complex relationship between humans and the Divine...God does not need us, but we need Him and what He provides us...This can be interpreted in various ways depending on our individual perspectives and beliefs...
Some men want an independence and desire of something else, like material things...Knowing these things it seems to suggest that humans though desperately needing Him as St. Paul says, we often forget or avoid Him and go off living without Him...So while ultimately being dependent on God for everything, we often prioritize our own desires and pursuits over seeking a connection and relationship with God...This can lead to a sense of internal conflict and unfulfilled longing...It can lead to a feeling of emptiness...
God on the other hand is Complete Unconditional LOVE and Complete Understanding...Man's love for God appears often to be conditional...These statements contrasts God's Unconditional LOVE for humans with our often conditional desire for God, seeking Him only when faced with troubles, problems, challenges or seeking something we need...These statements highlight the limitations of human love compared to God and His Divine LOVE...
God gives us free will, freedom and yet a responsibility...God, by giving us free will allows us to choose whether or not to engage with Him, even though we might desperately need God's Presence and His Guidance...This freedom and free will comes with the responsibility of choosing what truly matters in life...
There is the Great Mystery in our Father...There is a mystery in faith...The statement that St. Paul made about God needs nothing from man acknowledges the mystery of the Divine and the limitations of human understanding...We may not always comprehend God's motivations, yet faith encourages us to trust in His LOVE even when we don't fully understand it and things are taking a turn for the worse...We should trust in the LORD and lean not on our own understanding...