Does God really need our praise?
Disclaimer: I’m not religious. My passions for philosophy, science, and psychedelics brought me to God.
Although it’s only been a few months now, my time spent trying to build a relationship with God has already taught me so much. I’ve learned what it actually means to fear God, why it’s important the G in God is capital being just a couple of things. But one thing I’ve learned that’s had a significant impact on the way I think is praising God.
The reason for this meaning so much is because of how I used to view God, and how I used to always ask myself:
“If God is all powerful , why do they need praise? Why does an infinitely powerful being need my praise?
It never made sense.
But once I consciously and intently started building a relationship with God, finally becoming aware of and actually feeling His love for me is when I started to understand. Once I understood that creation happens from love, once I understood what it meant to be obedient is when I was finally able to start understanding and feeling the love God has for each and every one of us.
In my past, when I heard the words obey, surrender, and to not lean on my own understanding, I felt like I was being insulted and looked down on, like I was basically being told I lack the intelligence to do anything on my own. But none of that is true at all.
God is the mathematician, the biologist, the programmer, the engineer, the physicist, and the architect behind this universe we call home.
His house, His rules.
Don’t you go over to a family member’s house and make sure you don’t dirty it up or make too much of a mess? Same thing applies here. Obey and respect.
Most people see and navigate our world in black and white. I say that because a majority of humans think there either is free will or there just isn’t…why can’t it be both at the same time? Where are the rules that say the unseen, metaphysical part of reality only operates in the black and white either/or instead of operating in the infinite possibilities of the grey?
God determines and plans out every second of every day of our entire life, but gave us the intelligence and free will to make our own choices. So He has a plan for all of us, but it’s not required at all that you follow it. You can 110% do your own thing and God will love you no less. It’s just up to you as a sentient, conscious individual to remind yourself that whether positive or “negative”, there’s a consequence to everything.
I mean, we’ve all got that little voice in us that tells us to avoid something and we do it anyway a lot of the time. Do those moments not feel like you made that choice on your own?
As already mentioned, I’ve only been building my relationship with God for a few months now, so there’s so much more I have to learn. But what I’ve learned so far in this short period of time is what’s made me want to give God so much praise and spread their word of love. Not because I feel obligated to. Not at all. I want to because I just love God that fucking much.
