No doubt, God is a God who wants us to pray and is eager to answer our prayers.
He also is not a genie in a bottle.
Some take prayer to be the ability to call upon God to fix everything that is wrong in their lives with a crossing of the arms and nod of the head.
They fail to consider that God does not and will not do for us what we can do for ourselves. As my children have grown and matured, their mother and I have stopped doing certain things for them. We no longer diaper and change them. We no longer feed them by hand. We do not carry them when their legs are tired. We expect them to do what they can for themselves. Once their abilities and resources have been exhausted, we then will step in and help with what they cannot do for themselves. But not until then.
It is time for me to begin cutting weight again. No matter how much I pray for the weight to go away, God will not take it away. He has already given me the ability to close my mouth when food should not enter it. He has given me the ability to walk, run and exercise my body.
No matter how much I pray that God bless my pepperoni pizza and large coke to the health and nourishment of my body, it ain’t gonna happen.
Please do not let this idea hinder you from praying. Please pray frequently and often. Please take your needs and desires to God.
But also, please stop thinking that things are going to change in your life, if you aren’t willing to do some changing.
As a pastor, people want me to wave a magic wand of prayer over their lives to fix what is broken. Then they want to go right back to doing the same things they have always done. This also ain’t gonna happen.
In most cases, nothing is going to change for you until you change.
Proverbs 18:1: Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 