Daily Encouragement: Year 2, Day 81
From Handbook to God’s Promises
GOD’S RESPONSE TO ME
God Is No Wizard
Read 1 John 5:14–15
“So we’d like you to keep your promise to us, if you please, sir,” says Dorothy to the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
“Not so fast! Not so fast!” booms the wizard. “I’ll have to give the matter a little thought. Go away and come back tomorrow!”
Shocked and disappointed, Dorothy, the cowardly lion, the scarecrow, and the tin man agree, “If you were really great and powerful, you’d keep your promises!”
The riled wizard then goes on the offensive: “Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz? You ungrateful creatures!”
As devotees of Frank Baum’s children’s classic know all too well, Dorothy’s tiny dog Toto then proceeds to pull back the curtain and expose the “great and powerful Oz” for who he really is. “I’m a very good man,” he eventually admits. “I’m just a very bad wizard.”
Aren’t you glad you don’t direct your requests to a very good man who is a very bad wizard? The wizard delivers the cowardly lion’s courage, the tin man’s heart, and the scarecrow’s brain, in a manner of speaking. But it takes far more than a fake wizard to meet the deep needs of the human heart. It takes a God who is truly great and powerful, who keeps His promises, and who reveals Himself personally instead of through smoke and wizardry. Through Jesus Christ, God issues an invitation for us to turn to Him as a heavenly Father who stands ready to hear our prayers and meet our needs.
The apostle John concludes his first epistle by summarizing the confidence that every believer has in approaching God: If we ask things of God that are consistent with His will, He hears us. And if He hears us, we know that we will have from Him whatever we ask, so long as it is consistent with His will (1 John 5:14–15). That relationship is a far cry from wizards, “gods,” and good men who promise much but are powerless to deliver.
God is no wizard. He is the loving, sovereign Lord of all creation. He knows our needs and longs to meet them for our good and His glory. Today would be a good day to refresh your faith in His responsiveness to you.
God’s Promise: He delights in responding to you when you call upon Him.