When You Wish Upon A Star

Hi, this is Dave Scherrerrer of 100 Fold Ministries. You've found Kingdom Offerings. This is the podcast environment of our work, and I'm wondering whether you recognize this song. I want to play a few measures of this song for you, see if you know it. When you wish upon a star, make no difference who you are, Anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do. So if you know that song, you have some memory of it, maybe you've heard another version of it, but that's the song that Jiminy Cricket sang when kindly old Geppetto was longing for a real little boy instead of just a wooden puppet. It was a classic ballad of the 1940s animated movie Pinocchio. When you wish upon a star, and I think it's been covered by a couple of thousand different vocalists. Linda Ronstadt might be my favorite. I love the sentiment in this song. When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, then no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do. I love that sentiment. I mean, the song's beautiful. It's just that it's not true. Stars have no power to grant wishes. Fate isn't always kind, as the song will later say, and some requests are too extreme. And so, somewhere right in here you're saying, so Dave, you're all about the kingdom of God. What does this all have to do with the kingdom of God? And I think maybe a lot. You see, I think there's some pretty bad doctrine out there floating around regarding Jesus as king and his power, so to speak, to grant wishes. We think that he is like that bright star out there, and if our request is sincere and full of faith, then Jesus will answer us. He has to answer us. We're so sincere and we're so full of faith, and he says, well, no request is too extreme. Not for King Jesus. That's how we think. And kind of right in here is where it gets a little bit dicey, because Jesus is indeed king, and he has the power to do anything, okay? Philosophers will tell us that he can't do something that's logically impossible, and theologians will tell us he won't do anything that's a violation of his own character. Okay, okay. But he longs to give me good things, okay? So those are all true. But there's a problem when we apply this wishful thinking to a God who has a divine plan. And God has a plan to bring glory to the Godhead. That's the plan. His glory. Everything in all creation is part of this grand plan. Everything. Paul's right to describe Jesus in these really glowing terms that we find in Colossians chapter 1. He writes that the sun is the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation. He's preeminent. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him. And why? For him. All things, all things have been created through him and for him. And that includes not only the things past, but the things present and the things future. All things, all things are created through him and for him. Because he is before all things and in him all things hold together. What that's saying is all things are created for his pleasure and for his glory. Not ours. And we have to get that straight. That's really, really good theology. And so when we get deceived into thinking that God is some kind of cosmic Santa Claus and that I've been good and that I deserve good things, then we have now trespassed into bad, let me put a note to that, very bad theology. That kind of expectations that we carry about God's necessity to answer my prayers flies in the face of the authority of King Jesus. My plan and my timetable for the things that I want, no matter how sincerely I may think that they are very, very good, and I may think that very much, it's still my plan. And even when I ask sincerely, quite unselfishly for someone else that I love, I need to be careful that I remember that this is about God and his glory, not my expectations. That I remember that he has a plan for his own glory. And then somebody is going to say, well, Dave, why pray then? Why even pray? So we're not going to unpack all of this doctrine about prayer, but I'm going to give you a couple of good answers really fast. One is that Jesus prayed and he taught us to pray. And since I'm a follower of Jesus, then I guess I should pray too and so should you. That's a pretty good reason right there. Secondly, Scripture admonishes us to pray and to pray without ceasing, to bring our requests before God. And so two good reasons. The Bible tells me so, Jesus prayed, then I should pray even if I don't fully understand it. You see, prayer is about seeking the will of the King, that we might obey him and thereby glorify him, that we might enter into his plan to glorify himself. It is indeed about laying ourselves out before him. Even while knowing that he already knows our every thought and he's heard our prayerful groanings even before we pray them out loud, we are invited to groan before him. So for now, let me encourage you that wishing on a star is a fool's game, that is going nowhere. Expecting Jesus to answer my prayers in my way, in my timeline, is wishing on a star. It's bad theology. On the other hand, to tell Jesus that I need his help moment by moment, that's perfect. And to say, I need help getting to work, Jesus, on time, if it be your will, please help me with green lights. Okay, I don't think I have anything against that prayer, unless, of course, I slept in too late and dilly-dallied around and I left for work late and now I need a miracle to get there on time. And so I'm praying that God will change all the lights just for me so I can get to work on time, and frankly, now you're wishing on a star. Fate does not step in to see you through, like the song says. Now, sometimes that happens, and I'm gonna give all the credit for the good things in my life to the good God. But frankly, I'm aware that the bad things in my life, the hard things, the suffering and the difficulties of life, those are all from God, too, because he is the God of all things. Well, we're gonna talk more about this over the next coming months, a little bit more about this prayer and how does it work in the kingdom. And so what we know right now is that we are kingdom citizens and that he has granted us permission to boldly come before the throne of grace. So let's continue to do that. This is Dave Scherrerrer of 100 Fold Ministries, and you've been listening to Kingdom Offerings. Check out the rest of the website at 100foldministries.org and see if there isn't something else there that might encourage you. Feel free to drop me an email and catch up on what you've been thinking and praying about. Take care.