When rubbing the lamp isn’t working

We’ve all heard the fables about rubbing a bronze lamp only to have a genie pop out and offer us three wishes.

What we forget is that it is only a fable.  We tend to approach God and prayer the same way.  “Ok, God, you said ask and now I’m asking so gimme.”  And He doesn’t gimme.

James chapter four gives us good insight into this kind of misunderstanding about prayer.  He says that we have not because we ask not and when we do ask, we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts.  In other words, we are selfish pray-ers.

The first three verses of James four explains that lustful prayers do not work.  When our heart is in gimme mode, we aren’t going to see what it is we want come to fruition.

Prayer is like a weight loss regimen or saving for retirement.  There are rarely immediate results.  Occasionally it works that way, but not often.  Weight loss occurs when we change our diet, cut back on some calories and increase our activity levels.  Retirement is funded when we save a little here and a little there over a very long period of time.

Prayer changes you when it is something that you put a little time and effort into over a longer period of time.  God is not in the windfall business.  He is trying to conform us to the image of His Son and that takes time.

While we are committing to a daily appointment with God, He starts to change us from the inside out.  When this happens, those lusts that James keeps talking about start to metamorphose.  Real needs rise to the top, while vain matters are something the old us used to cling to.  Now that we are maturing, we put away childish things.

So if you’re arm is getting tired from rubbing that lamp to get your three wishes, you can stop.  A little time spent alone talking to God every day will get you what you’re looking for.

You can listen to me talk about it here.  It’s entitled “Pray”.