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A woman found this old lamp at a flea market and thought it would be a neat addition to her mantle. She wanted to polish it up a bit, so she grabbed a cloth and began to rub. Smoked billowed out and a strange little man followed behind. Shocked, she dropped the lamp and thought she might pass out.
“You rubbed the lamp and I’m here to grant your greatest wish.”
“One? That’s it?” She asked. In the fairytales, they always got three.
“Just one. Your heart’s desire.”
She thought long and hard about this one. But she thought she had it all figured out. Instead of having to choose between asking for lots of money, her children to listen to her all the time, people to wait on her hand and foot, a lavish home, and the best food prepared by her own chef, she thought she had a way to get it all.
“I want to become the queen.”
The genie stared at her with his arms folded and asked, “are you sure? Do you really know what you’re asking for?”
Her smile widened and she crossed her arms towards him. “Yes. Now make me the queen!”
POOF!
Surrounded by guards, she found herself in a beautiful palace, arrayed in the finest dress, a servant by her side holding a letter on a tray.
“My Queen. Your attention to the matter is most pressing.”
She opened the missive and her jaw dropped.
War.
Their enemy was declaring war against them.
“What do you wish to do my queen?”
“Go get my husband the king. Let him be bothered with this. Bring me something to eat and get someone to fan me. It’s stifling in here.”
He looked surprised and puzzled.
“But your majesty. The king is dead. Your children killed him to try to steal the throne.”
This is not at all what she had wished for!
Or was it?
While this is a silly little tale, it’s a great reminder that our thoughts and desires can be deceiving and can cloud our judgment and decisions.
Luke 11:9-10
“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
I know what you’re thinking, where is she going with this? This scripture says that if we ask God will give it to us.
True. To a certain extent.
The question is really our heart and mind.
We’ve all prayed for something, sometimes desperately, but it never happened. The Lord never gave it to us or fulfilled that request.
Why?
Doesn’t the scripture say ask and receive? Doesn’t He care about us?
That’s exactly right. He does care. Deeply. And He knows far more than we do.
What if He was like the genie and just gave us exactly what we wished for? What kind of a mess would we be in?
In James 4:3 it says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
We want what will make us feel better, meet our needs, demands, or desires. But what if what is actually better doesn’t look like what we had in mind at all?
The Lord’s will is perfect. His plans and ways are far greater than anything we can imagine or put together.
When we pray, we should ask for what’s on our hearts, but, according to God’s will.
Just as Jesus did in the garden.
“Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
God could have taken it all away. He could have stopped the guards, the torture, His Son’s death, all of it. But where would we be?
Without hope.
Keep going to the Lord. Keep asking, seeking and knocking. You’ll find more than you ever imagined. More than you planned.
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