Aladdin's Three Wishes

According to the popular Christmas pantomime when Aladdin rubbed his magic lamp out popped a genie who could grant him three wishes. For many who claim to be Christians this is the way they view God and prayer - summoning God when it is convienient (i.e. when they're in a crisis) with a wish list - success in a job interview, healing, that there will be a free parking space ... God is interested in all these things but prayer is much more than a wish list, and God so much more than a pantomime genie. And whist these things are important - they are not the most important things.

When Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus (Ephesians 1:15-23) he prays 4 things for them. 1) That they would know God better. 2) That they would know the hope to which God has called them. 3) That they would know that they are a part of God's inheritance. 4) And that they would know God's great power at work in them.

If God were to grant you three wishes what would you ask for? I wonder how many people would 'waste' one of their wishes on 'knowing God better'! Yet for Paul there was nothing more important (e.g. Philippians 3:10). But as a Christian I should be doing all I can to know God better.

Many might ask for the power of God - wouldn't it be great to go round healing people with just a touch, turn water into wine, raise the dead... But I wonder whether my ego could cope with that kind of power. Would I use it or abuse it? Yet this power is available to us. But why don't we see it more? Maybe God protects us from ourselves. Maybe there is a reason that this is at the end of the list. Maybe other things need to come first: faith in Jesus and love for all God's people (v15); a deeper knowledge of God (17); a life that brings hope to those around through acts of kindness which point to the possiblity of new creation; and the joy and inner confidence in knowing who we are in Christ, that comes from seeing yourself as a part of God's inheritance (18).