Of Freedom, Country and Vaccination

[fifteenth]

So point being: Prayer is not a genie or a vending-machine where we come to get what we "want." Such a thing has nothing to do with prayer. Prayer is a constant seeking (and demanding) of the Creator's will, which as we see in the case of Jesus, does not lead to immediate healing, comfort, or prosperity, but to the life of the cross, the path of self-sacrifice and death at the hands of our enemies...even as we wait on the Creator for his work of resurrection. The Creator's will is resurrection through death. To pray therefore is to seek resurrection through death. The genie or vending machine imagery wants to bypass death and that is not the Father's will.

I agree with a lot of this Kam, and of course I'll spare you the Bible study, because I think you know the scriptures. But, while "not my will, but yours be done", and "being burried with Him..." are core and central, our Father also asks us to bring our needs to him. Not that he does everything we ask, like a genie, but that he's compassionate, he hears, he sees and he may very well intervene when we ask. I think you can see that in the scriptures without having a "God is a vending maching" mentality.