As we go through the Christian life, we experience life. There will be good days; there will be bad days. As the Bible says, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven … A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,4).
Through these times of laughter we often lift up prayers of praise; during the times of morning we offer up prayers filled with requests asking God to pull us out of life’s swamp and place us on dry, solid ground.
Attitudes about prayer have always been a wonderment to me. Some Christians have what I call an Aladdin attitude of prayer. They rub the magic lamp; God will then give them whatever they request. Just like Aladdin and his genie, the only difference being that God is not limited to only three wishes.
The line of thinking that God will give you whatever you ask for comes from several verses where Jesus explains that we will receive whatever we ask.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, therefore, presents a problem. Paul had a physical ailment. Paul tells us he prayed to God three times about the situation and God gave the answer—He would not heal Paul. God says to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
As an apostle and writer of 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament, it would seem Paul would have the inside track of an Aladdin type prayer life, but when it came to a physical healing, God answered, “No.”
So which is it? Does God grant our every wish or does He answer, “No” sometimes?
Since God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), He will not treat Paul any different than He does the rest of His children. Therefore, if God told Paul “No” He will not hesitate to tell us “No” as well. Now we are faced with a problem; what about those verses about asking and receiving whatsoever ye ask? We must be missing something.
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