God is not the genie of the lamp: he is Father. Lorena Moscoso, spirituality writer, reflects on the importance of trusting that God does hear our prayers
A few weeks ago a priest said in his Sunday sermon: “if you don’t pray, the world doesn’t change”. I love knowing that God wants and expects us to collaborate with Him to build a better world.
Many believe that prayer is a waste of time, even those who practice their faith and pray, make sure they have a plan B in case God does not grant them what they ask for. What a lack of confidence of ours!
The truth is that we are so fragile and our miseries so great, that what really happens is that we do not trust God, we do not allow him to respond in his own way, but rather we want and hope that, instead of acting like a Father, he acts better like the genie of the lamp, where you ask him for a wish and he grants it without delay.
But God is not a genie in the lamp, God is a Fatherand if he is going to give us something, he first makes sure that it is something good for us, and if it is good, then he prepares the way for us to receive it safely, without anything being wasted.
He also knows that it is good that while we go through the world, we stay close to Him, to know how to understand and intuit His will and know better how to ask. That son when he walks close to his father does not also receive wisdom from him. God delights with us, with our company and we receive endless graces.
The importance of thanking
Walking with the Father is walking with His Son, being close, continuously receiving the sacraments, participating in Mass and the sacrament of confession regularly, so as not to lose God’s presence in us. It should be “noted” that we walk together, not only in thought, but in our conduct and decisions.
How many times God answers our prayers, and we forget to thank him. It happens to me frequently, I remember too late to thank. What patience of our Father! How not to run away and throw ourselves into his arms and tell him how much we love him and how grateful we feel for his response, and how he gives us immense treasures, immense!
In my experience, I have been able to notice three wonderful things in the actions of God the Father, the first, that when one asks for something, He begins to act long before our prayer, a few days ago I read about this: “Before they call, I will answer them” (Isaiah 65, 24).
God goes ahead and begins to work long before I ask for my needs, I know because for me to receive that, some events had to happen first and then I can see that He already went ahead knowing that I would ask him. What a good father!
The next thing I can see in his work is that God wants to put us up to receive. He was talking about this when he said a few lines above, that He prepares the way to receive.
God prepares the way
If I ask God that I can study abroad to give an example, He will take care first of strengthening my spirit, of allowing me to live some experiences to reach a certain maturity, to learn discipline or to gain some skills to face life. away from home, so when this develops, when the time comes, God gives us what we ask for, as long as it is for our good.
I want to give another example that I have used on other occasions. Suppose a wife wants her husband to change some attitudes, she will be moved to ask that, “Lord, change my husband.” But God does not begin with the husband, he begins by transforming the heart of the wife and then in this process, the husband and wife relationship is transformed and eventually, when the time comes, the husband will also be touched by prayer.
God is so good, that he does more than what we ask, he transforms dry land into fertile land.
There will also be times when God will not grant us what we ask for because it is not for us. My grandmother told me that as a child she was very much in love with a young man, but that despite her prayers, things could never happen for them to end up together. After a few years she knew that the life this man was leading was very bad, and she told me: “Can you imagine if God had allowed me to marry this boy? Daughter, God knows what he does”.
It is necessary to ask God for our needs, because he is our Fatherbut let us learn from His Son and abandon ourselves to His entire will, always telling Him: “but not my will but Yours be done”.
moscosolorena@gmail.com