We all know the saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” And we all know some version of this tragic tale: a downtrodden character comes across a genie in a bottle and is granted three wishes. It seems like a dream come true, all of their problems can now be solved–as long as they word their wishes carefully. Genies are bitter captives and, if they can find leeway in the wording of the wish, they will twist dreams into nightmares.
A humorous example of this is the longstanding joke where a man wishes for “a million bucks” and instead of receiving a million dollars, he ends up with a million male deer. A more devastating example is a young woman who wishes “to be attractive to men”, so the genie turns her into a freshly fried sizzling slice of bacon.
“I was scared of asking God for what I wanted because I was worried I would ask him wrong.”
While these stories can be used to impart valuable lessons, they can also have some unintended negative side effects.
For me, I subconsciously grew the tendency to treat praying to God like I was requesting a wish from a genie. I was scared of asking God for what I wanted because I was worried I would ask him wrong and he would "bamboozle" me.
That's when I noticed I wasn't thinking of God in terms of how the Bible described Him. Here are a few verses which describe God and the relationship He desires with us:
Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV) says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
Romans 8:28 (NIV) says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:31-39 (NLT) says, “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We don't have to be careful with God. He isn't out to “get us” or trick us like genies or monkey paws or any other mythical "wish granters". God loves us and the Bible makes it clear that all He wants is for us to come to Him in honesty and sincerity so He can have a true and meaningful relationship with us, like a loving parent with His child.
To ease our minds even more, God promises that even if we don’t know how to pray, or what to pray for, or we mess up our prayers, the Holy Spirit will help us and speak for us. So, even if God wanted to take advantage of a linguistic misstep (which He doesn’t), He would never get the chance because the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let us make such a tragic mistake.
Romans 8:26-27(NIV) says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Prayer is an amazing privilege, gifted to us through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Since Jesus got rid of the sin barrier between us and God, we can now approach God’s throne with the confidence of one of His children whom He loves.
As Timothy Keller said, “The only person who dares wake up a King at 3am to ask for a glass of water, is a child. We have that kind of access to God.”
“The only person who dares wake up a King at 3am to ask for a glass of water, is a child. We have that kind of access to God.”
God doesn’t want us to be afraid to talk openly to Him. He may not always answer our prayers in the way we hoped or envisioned, but that’s only because He is all-knowing. He has proven His love for us over and over again, so we can trust that His answers to our prayers won’t be spiteful or vindictive. God isn’t a “wish granter”, He listens to our requests and then responds in whichever way is best for us, even if it isn’t what we asked for or thought was best for ourselves.
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”