God is not a Genie...

Dear Evolving Reader,

I've found myself paying closer attention to the way we pray... and it lead me to the conversation we are going to have here today. Almost every prayer is centred around the same thing: asking for something outside of ourselves to change, and then expecting life to rearrange itself in response.

It struck me how familiar that pattern was. Without ever consciously deciding to, we have begun treating prayer as though it were a request rather than a relationship. People unknowingly started viewing God like a genie. Someone who exists to grant what is asked for. The more I reflected on that, the more I realised how different that is from the God I actually believe in. The shift comes when we stop asking, "Why isn't this changing?" and start asking "What if the answer to my prayer isn't the outcome I'm waiting for, but the person I'm being invited to become?" That single question changes everything.

A genie grants wishes. A coach creates transformation. If we view the divine as the ultimate coach there is a paradigm shift in how we approach prayer. A genie gives us what we ask for. A coach helps us become the person capable of receiving what we've asked for. One removes the work; the other reveals the work that still needs to be done. This is where so many of us have misunderstood our relationship with God. When people pray, the focus is often placed on the outcome. We pray for the successful business, the healthy relationship, the financial freedom, the confidence to pursue the dream or the peace we've been longing for. Yet, God's first concern isn't giving us those things, it's preparing us to receive them.

What if He knows that giving us the blessing before shaping our character would only leave us unequipped to sustain it? Viewed through that lens, many of life's most difficult seasons begin to make sense. So often, people believe their prayers are going unanswered because nothing around them appears to change. Sometimes life even seems to become more difficult. However, I have come to realise that if life is becoming more uncomfortable, God is most definitely listening.

We're often taught that God is omnipresent. He already knows our hearts. He knows what keeps us awake at night. He knows when we're grieving, when we're overwhelmed, when a relationship has run its course. Naturally, raising the question many people have asked: if He already knows all of that, why doesn't He simply change it?

God's knowing isn't the same as overriding our free will. If every obstacle disappeared the moment we prayed, if every difficult decision was made for us and every uncomfortable lesson was removed before we had to face it, there would be no choice, no growth and no transformation. We would become spectators in our own lives rather than participants in them. Free will only exists because we are invited to choose. Even when it means allowing us to walk through seasons that stretch us. That's why surrender isn't passive; it's an intentional choice.

Surrender isn't waiting for life to change. It's beginning the conversation with the Divine. It's saying, "Show me what I can't yet see. Reveal what's standing between me and the life I'm asking for. Help me become the person capable of carrying what I'm praying for." That's how many prayers are answered…not by changing our circumstances overnight, but by changing us. Once we begin looking at life through that lens, so many experiences take on a different meaning. It's tempting to believe those moments are evidence that God isn't listening. What if they're actually evidence that He is?

A great coach doesn't remove the resistance because it s hard; they see our potential before we see it ourselves, and they guide us through the very experiences that allow that potential to emerge. The process is rarely comfortable, but comfort has never been the goal, transformation has. We've been asking for the destination while God has been preparing us for the journey that makes the destination sustainable. We pray for outcomes when we should be praying for our blind spots to be revealed. We ask for blessings while resisting the very lessons that would allow us to hold onto those blessings once they arrive.

We've simply been praying for the wrong things!

Instead of praying, "Make me successful," the better prayer is, "Help me become someone who can handle success. Show me where I still need to grow." Prayers like this are more confronting because they invite change within us rather than change around us. God isn't as interested in making us comfortable as He is in helping us grow. Not because He wants us to suffer, but because He sees a version of us that we cannot yet see ourselves. Often the answer to our prayers doesn't arrive as a miracle, it arrives as awareness. Awareness of the belief that's been limiting us, of the wound we've been avoiding, of the fear disguising itself as logic. Because awareness is where transformation begins.

This week's podcast explores a simple but profound shift in perspective: God isn't a genie waiting to grant wishes. He's something far greater than that: a coach who sees who we're capable of becoming and immaculately places opportunities before us to grow into that person. The greatest prayer isn't, "God, change my circumstances." It's, "God, change me." Because when our character changes, our lives inevitably follow. May we look back and realise that every difficult conversation, every uncomfortable opportunity, every season that stretched us wasn't evidence that God had stopped listening.

It was evidence that He had been answering us all along. 

Until next Tuesday...

With great love,

Summer