Making a wish can be really fun. I asked my classes to write down for me what they would wish for if given the chance. I wanted to see what kind of trend might emerge, or if one would.
They wished for:
- material possessions or money,
- talents or abilities,
- and relationships!
These wishes could be categorized as:
- To be secure,
- To be successful,
- To be loved,
Interesting how all of the wishes were the students’ own version of “happily ever after.”
I think in order to obtain these types of things, we need to do more than just wish for them. We need to pray for them.
The difference between wishing and praying is this: wishing is hope without substance. We know, even while we are blowing out those candles (and the more there are, the more this is true) that the wish is not likely going to come true. Maybe some of us have stopped bothering to even make a wish when we blow out our candles. Maybe some of us don’t even bother to light them. The song we heard earlier, contains one line that I think captures our hopelessness when it comes to wishes, “I wish wishes came true.”
The truth is, wishing is not enough. We need to pray.
Wishing is hope without substance, whereas praying is an expression of faith.
We pray because we have faith in the One to whom we are offering our petitions. We know that God is love, that he has our best interests at heart, and that he wants to hear from us. He is enough to meet our needs, and He promises to do so.
The key to unlocking the power of prayer is knowing what to pray for.
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