God Is Not A Genie; Trust His Process
“Son though He was, He learned obedience through what He suffered.””
I have a confession to make, I’ve never watched Aladdin. From the moment my mother heard the words, “magic carpet” her response was, “absolutely not”, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had no interest. The little that I know of the infamous movie is that there was a genie who offered to grant a man’s wishes. Or something like that…
Nevertheless, I must admit that throughout my life there have been moments where I wished someone would offer me a few wishes for anything in the world. In case you’re curious, I would have learned how to fly by now (yes, literally lol), and sickness and illness would no longer exist in the world.
But that isn’t the way God and life works. Instead of genies and wishes riddledwith deceptive fine print, we have a loving God and the gift of prayer.
Over the past year, I have spent a significant amount of time praying for the fruits of the spirit found in Galatians 5. For reference, they are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, meekness, and self control. More recently, I’ve prayed specifically for patience, and mercy.
Shortly after I began to pray this prayer something interesting occurred. All of a sudden I found myself surrounded by extremely difficult circumstances, and let’s face it; people. It was to the extent that I had to pause and pray sometimes on a minutely basis. I was overwhelmed and confused, desperately begging God to remove the situation, all the while still praying for patience.
To my surprise as I prayed for the gift of mercy a similar phenomenon occurred. Seemingly out of the blue, I was betrayed, lied to, falsely accused, and slandered. It seemed as though every opportunity for offense to rise within me had surfaced. My heart was broken and I cried out to God for help and direction. Amazingly, His response to me as I cried was, “love them anyway.” and “show them mercy.”
It was an epiphanic moment. I began to recognize the pattern of God. Every time I prayed for a greater measure of His fruit in my life, rather than Him pouring the fruit into me, He placed me in circumstances where I had an opportunity to exercise the muscle of said fruit.
You see, God is not a genie. God is a man of process. He is meticulous in His order and He creates systems that ultimately lead us to a predetermined end. More often than not, getting to the end result will require our participation and patience. It will be a painful process that stretches us and causes us to grow.
Now, let’s look to Jesus. The Bible says, “Son, though He was, He learned obedience through what He suffered. This scripture suggests that Jesus’ wishes, hopes and desires weren’t automatically granted because He was the son of God. Rather, like all of us, He endured the process of stretching, refinement, learning, and suffering.
This is the pattern of our Gardener; seed time, and harvest. The planting of the seed is our prayer. The time is where we are plucked and pruned and the harvest is when our fruit blossoms!
Today, allow me to encourage you to let God work on your heart and the fruit that your life produces. It will not happen overnight, and it probably won’t be easy. However, I can assure you that with God it is always worth it. Trust God’s process and bear God fruit.
Yours Truly, Kurukuru, Guyana.
Prayer of Salvation
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
- Romans 10:9 NIV
None of us are perfect and sometimes we lose our way. Thankfully, God is gentle, merciful, faithful, and always willing to forgive us if we repent. Perhaps you are in a season where are you are experiencing distance from God. Maybe you’ve returned to your former ways of being. Or maybe you’ve never known him at all.
Today, God is asking you to return to Him and promising that he will accept you wholeheartedly. If you fit into this category, then I invite you to pray the prayer of salvation below. It is a verbal confession that you believe Jesus is the son of God and you are asking him to wash away your sins and accept you into his kingdom, it is the acknowledgment that from this moment that you desire God to lead your life. Simply believe in your heart as you read this prayer aloud.
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that I am a sinner, and I need a savior. I’m asking You to forgive me of my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He lived, died, and was resurrected to life. I believe that You are the only God and the only way to eternal life. Today, I’m asking You to enter my heart, change my life and lead me by the power of Your Holy Spirit, from this day forward. I need you in Jesus name. Amen.
If you’ve pray this prayer for the very first time, welcome to the kingdom of heaven! The Bible says that the angels rejoice every time someone gives their heart to God. So just imagine the party in heaven, taking place on your behalf!
