It Doesn't Matter, God's no Genie
“I tell you, then, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24, NEB)
“Whatever you pray for in faith you will receive” (Matthew 21:22, NEB)
“Anything you ask in my name I will do” (John 14:13, NEB)
“If
two of you agree on earth about any request you have to make, that
request will be granted by my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:19)
Do these texts offer a blank cheque signed by Jesus?
If they offer a blank cheque, do they offer it only to a few Christians or to every Christian; only to you or to everyone?
If
God has given you a blank cheque he has given a blank cheque to the
person sitting next to you or on the other side of the room; to people
you like and to people who don’t like you, to those you agree with on
most things and to those you can never agree with on anything.
If
we take the above texts literally and absolutely and every Christian
got a blank cheque they’d have power over the weather, over life and
death and every other conceivable thing. God wouldn’t rule the world; we
would!
At
voting time, Harry wants Wilbur Wilburson for the country’s leader and
Wilma wants Margaret Margetson. (On the other hand, why wouldn’t we ask
for leadership for ourselves as James and John did?) Joe wants a sunny
day for the picnic or a funeral and Harriet wants rain for their crops.
Wilson wants the immediate death of a present tyrant who’s abusing his
wife (Wilson’s daughter) and she wants his immediate salvation.
Elizabeth wants her aged mother to rise from her terminal bed and the
weary mother wants to go on home to Jesus.
To
take the texts above literally and absolutely would mean the abolition
of death because lovers would not only pray for the recovery of their
beloved who are ill, they’d pray for the resurrection of their beloved
dead (didn’t Mary and Martha?). Would they pray only for the cure of
their aged parents and want them to struggle on in feebleness and
ill-health—would they not pray for unbroken fullness of health as well? And, of course, they’d pray for their own unbroken health.
There’d
be no lost people in the world. Two of us would pray for the salvation
of every person in the world in every generation—without exception and
it would come true! And why would we wish to wait for their salvation—immediate and full salvation is what we’d ask for. Why stop there? Ask for the immediate and utter obliteration of sin in the world and it’s done!
But why should any of that be a problem: God can do anything!
That’s not true!
Even it were true that God can do “anything” the very idea that he would want to do “anything” might be worse than untrue—that he would want to do some things that we’d want him to do might be a flaw in his character.
Listen: it doesn’t matter that the texts say what they say. To so understand
such texts that it turns God into our divine Genie who's there to say,
"Your wish is my command" and turn the world into chaos is not to take
the texts seriously at all.
The texts must be listened to in light of who God is and what he purposes. (To be continued, God enabling.)