Prayer Tip #7-A Father Not a Genie

I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If in my name you ask for anything, I will do it.
John 14:13-14

There is so much danger in partially reading scriptures, but I don't think many of us realize it.  But as I have stated before, we must be aware of the context, background and punctuation that is within the scripture.  These things will tell us a lot more about what we are reading, but it takes time.  In a generation where people want things quickly so that they can experience instant gratification, using the aforementioned tools may be a foreign concept.  We want what we want and we want it now!  That is part of the reason why many of us in the body of Christ treat God like a genie rather then our Heavenly Father.  We want a father that will give us exactly what we want.  We don't want to have to wait for it and half the time we don't want to have to work for it.  We want a father that is quick to do what we ask and is seldom to tell us no.

The problem with that is when you give a "child" everything that they want, they develop a false sense of how the world truly works.  What would really happen if God gave you everything that you asked for?  How would it affect your life? Your family? Future spouse? Your destiny/purpose?  No parent that wanted the best for their child would give them everything that they ask for so why do we expect God to do anything different.  When we become mature in our faith and stop acting like children, then we learn to thank God for the things that he didn't give us.  We learn that God will give us what we ask when it glorifies the Son.  We learn to not get upset with God when He doesn't give us something that we asked for, but to check the reasons we wanted it in the first place.  God wants to do so much for us and through our prayer life we have the ability to connect with Him to get those things, but they may not always be the things that we want.  They are essentially what we need.

Key point: If you don't think Jesus Christ can be glorified by what you're thinking about asking Him for then ask Him to remove the desire then ask Him to give you His desires for your life.

Peace and Blessings,