Praying.... to a Genie? pt. 1

I recently was in class when our professor asked us to get into groups and talk about a passage from the bible. While we were discussing the text and talking about what it may mean one of the group members said, "Hey can we pray for this time for God to come and take over."

I thought this was very interesting. Not that he wanted to pray, but because of the occasion of why he wanted to pray. He wanted to pray because he thought that by praying to God we would have a better chance of having a right answer. I was dumbfounded at this time. I felt like I was in the 5th grade again when I used to pray and ask God to hook me up with the hot 6th grader...

Is God our genie? Are we like Aladdin where we rub the genie to ask him for something when we need to get bailed out. Praying seems to have changed from the ancient practice of listening for Gods voice and direction in our lives to throwing a penny in a wishing well.

I have heard way to many people talk about prayer as if it is only needed in times of necessity. People love to throw out the God card whenever they need something to happen for them in a selfish sense. An example would be, "God, help me to beat this other boxer." What happens though if the other boxer is a believer and prays the same prayer...? Does God choose one boxer over the other? I laugh when athletes/stars throw out the God card when they do something wrong and hope that by rubbing the genie they will get out of it.

I have even heard a youth pastor pray for a high school football team and ask God to deliver them against the evilness of the other football team. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard this youth pastor use God in such an abusive way. He made the kids believe that God was going to deliver this football game to them and to go out like the army of God and deliver him a victory...

I think that there needs to be a serious look at our hearts and put some thought into our intent and purpose of why we are praying.

Now I'm not saying that praying to God in times of trouble are wrong or in ANY type of situation where we might feel that we need guidance....

But I think that we do a dishonor to God when we pray to him as if he was a wish granter.

I would hope that people who confess their trust in God would trust really trust him.

More thoughts on this later.