A genie, or a God?

I came across a sermon excerpt by the late Min David Wilkerson on this topic; shared below:

 “We are so mixed up on this matter of prayer and faith, we have the audacity to think of God as our personal “genie” who fulfills every wish. 

We think of faith as a way to corner God on His promises. We think God is pleased by our efforts to back Him against the wall and shout ‘Lord, you can’t go back on your promise. I want what is coming to me. You are bound by your Word. You MUST DO IT, or your Word is not true!’

We are so busy working on God, we forget He is trying to work on us. That is what this life is all about: God at work on us, trying to remake us into vessels of glory. We are so busy praying to change things, we have little time to allow prayer to change us. 

God has not put prayer and faith in our hands as if they were secret tools by which a select group of ‘experts’ learn to pry something out of him. God said He is more willing to give than we are to receive. Why are we using prayer and faith as ‘keys’ or tools to unlock something that has never been locked up?”