Why Praying Isn’t Enough. God Wants Us to Act

In Western literature, the best-known story from The Arabian Nights (the ancient Arabian book) is arguably “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.”

Many of us recognize Aladdin and his lamp due to the well-received retelling of this story by Disney in 1992. Young Aladdin finds a lamp and upon rubbing it he summons the magical wish-granting genie (wonderfully played by the late Robin Williams). This story may be so popular because its theme conveys our intrinsic desire to magically be granted whatever we want. We’ve all thought about it at one time or another–especially in times of need.

It’s not hard then to understand why many believers think of God as Aladdin’s genie and imagine prayer being similar to rubbing a magic lamp in hopes of their wishes turning into reality. They often get on their knees and plead for money, health, riches, their favorite sports team’s victory, you name it! Even for more worthwhile reasons, such as preventing some of the tragedies as we’ve seen in 2019, we find ou…