stop treating God like your genie.

how often do you go to God because you want Him - not because you want something from Him?

in this episode, i unpack how we can fall into the trap of treating God like a genie: someone to grant our wishes rather than worship as our holy, sovereign Father. i share my own story of idolising my desires and seeing God as a means to an end - and how that mindset left me spiritually stagnant.

but here’s the truth: God loves us too much to give us everything we ask for. 

His blessings are in accordance with His will, not ours. and when we live in surrender, we experience transformation far beyond what we could ever imagine.

what i talk about:
✨ why treating God like a genie is dangerous to your faith
✨ how God’s sovereignty works above human desires
✨ the destructive nature of the human heart and why God withholds certain things
✨ practical ways to shift your mindset from self-serving to God-serving
✨ why God’s rejection is often His protection

scriptures i mention:

• jeremiah 17:9 – "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
• proverbs 3:5-6 – "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."
• james 4:3 – "you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."
• isaiah 55:8-9 – "for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."
• psalm 46:10 – "be still, and know that I am God."
• exodus 32:1-4 – the story of the golden calf.
• romans 12:2 – "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind."

Transcript

0:09

Hey, homegirls. Welcome back to the Lesser Me podcast with your girl Elodie. I'm back. I've actually missed you guys quite extra this week because I usually kind of keep you guys up to date on, like, my YouTube community, which I love, by the way, and I haven't done it this week. I have excuses, but those excuses aren't good enough. It's like my dog ate my homework type excuses. I've had a busy week, but, like, it genuinely has just, like, slipped my mind. This week has gone really fast as well. And I think because I got my podcast out late because, well, to be honest, actually, I have got a really good excuse. I was in London on the weekend to see Naz and see my friend. I saw Naz run his first 200 meters. Oh, my gosh. I was screaming. Like, I was allowed this in that room. He won my babe. He's so fast. I love it. And I also went to go see my friend who's moved to uni in London. So I went to her house. She also has a pool and, like, basically a spa in her apartment. So we had, like, a girly spa night, which was so cute. And because of that, I didn't have time to upload. I uploaded the audio, which you guys might have seen, like, two days before on the Saturday, but I didn't upload the video until Monday, which I feel like pushed me back when it came to my content. Like, usually I'm pretty much done on a Friday when it comes to editing, and then Saturday I'm just uploading and stuff. So I would, like, have time to kind of put together, like, my small clips and post, like, on Tick Tock and Instagram, give you guys a little update on the, like, community tab. But I just haven't this week, and I'm actually really sorry, and I've actually missed you guys. What we are actually here to talk about today is that God is not your genie. We're gonna go into this today. It's something that I have probably said a lot of different times in different ways on my podcast, and it kind of all ties back to the concept of this podcast, which is all about less of me and more of him becoming lesser so that he can become greater in your heart, in your life, through what you do. And I think this topic. I'm. I'm excited to talk about this topic. I basically did the whole podcast to my boyfriend on the phone before I started recording. Recording. So I'm fired up. My notes are here, as always, in physical form. And I'm so excited to share with you guys what I have to talk about. And I would love to hear you guys's thoughts on this episode. What spoke to you and actually let me plug myself now. This is the time. I hate doing it. I hate doing it when it's like other people's. I don't judge, but I judge myself. This is my problem. What. What on earth is wrong with me? But if you are listening and you enjoy the Lesser Be podcast, please give it a five star review. Comment subscribe Like Share thank you. Love you. How often do you go to God simply because you want him, not because you want something from Him? And this is something that I. We've all done it like. Like, let's just be honest now when I say, like any of my topics, I never talk about any topic on this podcast if I haven't directly dealt with it myself. So before I even point fingers at you, I have done this. And I think we will all continue to do it until the day we die and we meet Christ face to face. Because we are fleshly and we fall and we stumble. But in our journey, we should become more aware of when we do things that aren't in alignment with the word of God and aren't from a heart posture of growing a relationship with God. So more and more when these things come up, we should be able to check it and be like, okay, I shouldn't done that. God, I repent and I want to actually build a genuine relationship with you and not just see you as someone who grants my wishes because that's not what God is for. But I think too many people treat God as a genie in all different stages. I think regardless of how seasoned of a Christian you are, as I said, you could literally have been a Christian for 80 years and still go to God. When you haven't gone to God about something that you want and you've not even considered, like, is it in his will? And you've not even been like, hey, God, love you, like, talk to you. It's just like, yeah, I have this problem, I need to just fix it. But I do think this is a very prevalent thing amongst the more baby Christians. And this is kind of who I want to talk to. And even if you're, you know, more seasoned of a Christian, stick around. There might be something that convicts you. And there is something at the end in particular that I think, well, my friend said it to me yesterday on our Bible study and it has convicted me so much, so much so that I Wanted to make this episode today, but this is particularly for the baby Christians. Those of you who are maybe at the start of your journey or you're not at the start of your journey, but you feel like you've kind of been staying shallow when it comes to your relationship with God. You want to go deeper, but there are some things that are kind of getting in the way of you fully letting God penetrate your heart and work in you and transform you from the inside out. And I think one of the big things that I see, whether it's with people that I have met before or on social media or even myself, looking back to when I became a new Christian and I became a Christian with the literal goal in mind of praying for my boyfriend to come back to me, yeah, I. It got me to a good place, like, here I am, and I'm happy and I'm thriving and he's not in my life. And I always, you know, wish him the best. If I ever think of him, I'll pray for him because he's a child of God. But he wasn't Mammon, right? He was a man who I hope becomes a man of God, but he was not my man. I didn't ask God that. I didn't ask God what his plans were, not just for me, but for him as well. We weren't meant to be together. And me going about it like that was limiting what God could do and kind of extended the heartbreak for a very long period of time where I was just constantly fantasizing about him coming back and, like, us living happily ever after. Like, yeah, wow. I'm not even going to be embarrassed because I think, like, someone out there has done the same thing. When you go through a breakup and all you can do is just think and think and think and hope and hope and hope and pray and pray and pray. And I thought, like, the best tactic was like, okay, this Christian thing, Imma do it. And I'm just gonna hope that, like, he comes back and, like, he becomes a Christian. And then it's like we're like, together and Christian, but, like, I don't really care about God then, like, I just want you back, you know? And I definitely treated God like a genie heavily, solely in my early days as a Christian. But one thing I think over time was, like, a really beneficial shift for me was that, you know, I was praying about whatever I was praying about, particularly this thing of, like, you know, my heartbreak going away and this guy coming back. I began to realize that even if I had the Boy back. God was revealing to me deeper rooted issues that only he could heal. It was like as I opened more up to God, so did my insecurities and my fears and the thoughts of like despair and loneliness just came up and like put me in a chokehold. And that was like a really hard time of life that made it, made it difficult. Like the early days of being a Christian were really difficult because I felt like I was in insane spiritual warfare. And I definitely was in spiritual warfare. And I know that the devil felt like he had me. You know, my mum had been praying for me for years and I disobeyed her in so many ways. And he thought he had me and he could kind of just like let me self destruct on my own. He didn't really have to get involved. I was just doing it on my own will. So you know, me coming back to God and like being a little bit curious was like, absolutely not. But what the devil meant for evil, God uses for good. And I think in that time I definitely, yeah, just began to realize like, hold on a minute, I want this guy. I'm praying for this thing. I have like in mind what my will is for my life. But like that what I'm praying for is not gonna solve these problems. I need to get read my Bible more, I guess. So I started reading my Bible more and then like it kind of like clicked in my head like, oh, I need God. Like I need the Bible and I need what God says about me and not what I say about me or what men say about me. But I think genuinely though, if I hadn't been in tune and it's not even being in tune, I think if I hadn't been slapped so heavily with all the ranging of emotions during that time, I would have stayed in that same mindset. I think I would have stayed in the same lifestyle that I was in. I would have stayed in the same sins in the same perspectives of myself and men. I mean it kind of shows. I basically like had like a rebellious moment post becoming a Christian. And I do genuinely think that it was because my eyes were on Christ. But then I think Christian culture mixed with my own fleshy desires, which I think I don't even want to say it like that because really and truly it is often the Christian culture, the Christian culture in of itself is not Christ centered culture. It is self culture packaged up in the name of Christian. So you get people talking online, you get preachers, you get influencers who use the Christian name as a platform to push Prosperity and a platform to push. If you have this dream, you go to God and he is going to bless you. And you know, you just need to pray, you need to have faith about what, whatever you have in your mind, God will fulfill it. And that was the type of rhetoric that I was listening to. And I think for a while I did get very caught up in this self serving Christianity and then kind of going back into God as a genie. And I want this episode to just be challenging you to remember the purpose of your faith in the first place. You know, you might be a new Christian and there's just so much like there's so much in the Bible, there's so many different topics to delve into. There's so much knowledge that needs to be learned. You know, you need to learn about prayer, you need to learn about fasting, you need to learn about the fruits of spirit, the gifts of the Spirit. There's scriptures you need to memorize, there's church you need to attend, there's Christian jargon. You'd start understanding all the Christian needs that everyone has. And it can feel very overwhelming. And then there's your own problems and how you approach God with that. And you know, how can God work in this situation or what does God say about this topic? And there's so much you can become so easily overwhelmed and begin to set your eyes on a topic that suits your comforts or suits the period of life that you're in right now. So like let's say it's physical healing. You go about all of your prayer and all of your reading and all of your conversations and every sermon you watch and every small group you attend and every Bible study you have with yourself is centered around you being healed. And there's nothing wrong with learning about what the Bible says about healing. There's nothing wrong with having faith for that healing. But it's don't get to the point where you're a focus. You are almost like so caught up in the healing that the healing becomes your God and you begin to wake up with healing on your mind and healing in your lips more than just Christ, like just point blank period Jesus, because His love is all encompassing and God's will is to transform us in every single area of our lives. When we rest in Christ, we can rest assured that every area is going to come together in a way that suits his will and benefits his kingdom. And we don't need to worry about death, we don't need to worry about depression, we don't need to worry about being bogged down with this illness and being so burdened by something we can trust that by putting our eyes on Christ we have everything that we need in Him. You know, if you're a new Christian, that that might be the error that you're falling into, that you actually begin to forget that. Like, hello, like my faith is about Christ. It's not about this component, it's not about achieving this. It's not that like, like me, my faith is about praying my boyfriend to become a Christian, my ex boyfriend to become a Christian. My faith is about faith in Christ, not faith in myself, hoping that God will also agree with that faith. Like it's like when we say, you know, we come into agreement. God's not coming into agreement. You're coming into agreement with God. It's not God. I have like this idea. Will you come into agreement with it? God has set your purpose and your destiny before the foundations of the earth, which means that you go to him and you seek him and you let him know what your wills are. But you say, lord, like, I submit all of these things unto you and I trust that you will give me the wisdom to do what is best for me because you ordained it. And I think that mindset is transformative, but we don't have it. And I kind of want to go into, into that a bit more. And like, I guess the psychology behind it. And then also I know a lot of you might be watching this and you're like, yeah, like in theory that makes sense, but like, I don't know if I trust God enough to really come through for me. And that's why I've always kind of prayed to him when I need him, but then, you know, kind of do my own thing. Or maybe you are someone who doesn't see God as an all encompassing God. You may claim to be a Christian, you may claim to be someone who wants to grow in their relationship. Relationship. I say that with inverted commas, with God. But you don't really want a full relationship because you're not really sure how that will play out in your life. And if that's comfortable to you. And first things first, I want to say it's not comfortable, but comfort isn't beneficial. If I sat on my bum all day eating food, I'm comfortable, but I'm also ruining my body. I'm giving myself potential diabetes, heart problems. If I'm sat drinking, it could be liver problems. I'm causing myself to have blood circulation issues because I don't stand up and walk around in the moment, it's not comfortable for me to get up and exercise, which is what I've been doing right now. Guys, I didn't have a Fitbit for three weeks because my Fitbit kept breaking. I've got a new one now, and I've been trying to hit 10,000 steps every day. I really don't think I'm gonna hit it today. I'm on 5100, but it is, like, 10 to 8 at night, so unless I, like, walk on the spot for, like, two hours, I really doubt it. But I did do an exercise today. I've. Yeah, I've done quite well, but I have kind of got out of the swing of it. Like, honestly, technology is so good, but, like, why does it have me, like, in a chokehold? Because I genuinely felt like any exercise I did without my Fitbit was a lie. Like, I just thought, like, it. It's almost like how I used to be. Like, when I was a teenager. Like, if I didn't take a picture of it, it didn't happen. If I wasn't wearing my Fitbit and I haven't got the stats to prove that I went for that walk or I did that exercise, it didn't happen, like, in my brain. Like, I need the numbers to motivate me. Like, I'm very driven by stats. Stats have always been, like, so motivating to me when it comes to fitness. And when I got my Fitbit, like, my life changed. I lost so much weight when I got my Fitbit, but since my Fitbit broke and then I had to get a new one, I just lost all motivation. Like, I can't believe it. So now I'm, like, kind of back to square one, trying to get my summer bod before summer comes. I saw this quote, and it was like, your summer board starts in winter. And I was like, I know. I just. It was Christmas and, like, food and chocolate. Leave me alone. But, like, we gotta get back to it, guys. January's been an okay month, but, like, February is where it's at. February is my birthday, and it's also the time where I am gonna go all in with exercise. But anyways, that's my point. When it comes to comfort, I'm not comfortable right now. My legs are aching because I've been using muscles that I've not used in a long time. But when I get to, like, looking at myself in the mirror and be like, girl, you look so good, and then, like, I'm stronger and I'm enjoying working out more, and, like, I just feel like, overall better, like, even outside of, like, how I look, it's how I feel that provides me comfort, knowing that, like, no pain, no gain, like, no gain in, like, how I feel in my body, no gain in how I feel, like, when I look at myself in the mirror. And it's the same with our relationship with God. And you'll get to the point where, like, you eventually enjoy it and you love it and you can't imagine life without God being the center of who you are. And this leads on, amazingly, to James 4. And me and my friends just finished studying James. This is really fitting because it was probably one of the most convincing Bible studies I've done, like, in my life. And this is James 4. 3, and it says, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. God wants to bless. And God is a blessing. God, he rejoices in bringing fruit to our lives. He rejoices in us having prosperity in our lives. But I think the problem with Christian culture, again, it all comes down to Christian culture. We mimic the world's culture. And I've said this many times, because we need to stop assuming that just because someone's packaged something up as a sermon, just because someone's, you know, got a cross in their bio and they use scriptures as they talk does not mean that their own biases are coming into play. Which is why I haven't said it in a while, but I'm going to say it now. I do not have divine truth. Do not listen to my podcast and call that your Bible time or your time with God. I'm not God. I might have had conviction from God about this topic and I might be 100% right in an area, but I am so Elodie, meaning that I pray that I am talking from the Holy Spirit, but I will never be able to guarantee to you or to myself that there aren't biases that come into my speech. Meaning that go and compare it with the word of God, what I'm saying, go and look deeper into scriptures that I mention. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom on what to take from something that I've said and what to leave and pray for me as well, that if I'm wrong in an area that God convicts me on that. Because too often we see what people say online and we take it as gospel, particularly when it comes to prosperity, that, you know, the Bible does promise prosperity in so many areas, but we assume that prosperity is linked to a human understanding of prosperity and don't get me wrong. God blesses materially. He can bring in the like physical, prosperous things that we see in life, but he does it in accordance with his will. He doesn't do it in the way that we assume he does far more abundantly than we can ever imagine. And it starts in the heart. And that is one thing that I always say to myself. You know, God has blessed me in so many things. In the physical, anyone can look at my life and see how God has moved in so many areas. When it comes to my relationships, when it comes to the way that I carry myself, when it comes to my job, when it comes to financial aspects, God has most definitely blessed me. But one thing that I have realized in the way that he has blessed me is I have asked for one thing. And he has either taken me on a journey to when I do get there, I can only praise him and not myself, or he gives me something that is like that but so much better than what I asked for and so much more abundant. And it's actually grown me internally. When I pray now, I try to remind myself that whatever I am praying for, that I don't just get the material blessing, but I get the spiritual refining that I have learned something in the process, that I have matured, that I have endured. And as a result, I have grown in the fruit. I have grown in the way that I view God, the way that I worship him, the way that I treat others, the way that I treat myself, that I don't see it as, oh, check God's, you know, put that X amount of money in my account. I'm just gonna do what I do with it, and I'll talk to you when I need something else, you know, and that's not what God does. He does things in accordance with his will mean, meaning that it needs to benefit his kingdom. And that means you and other people and his overall goal of making disciples of all nations. That's the purpose of his blessings. He never blesses just to boost ego, and he never blesses just to boost comfort. And for a lot of people, that. That's hard to hear because you might be wanting something so bad, either something that you genuinely believe that God wants for you, or maybe that's the reason why you've treated God like a genie. Because you don't want to go into his word. You don't want to really hear what he truly has to say about a certain topic. And, you know, if you read too deeply, he's gonna clearly show you that he wants something else for you. So you hold off. And that's why you're walking in the surface of Christianity. But I really want you to know how destructive your heart is, how destructive my heart is, and how destructive every single human being's heart is. How prone we are to pride, how prone we are to rejecting the things of God, how prone we are to perversion. And in those things, in that constant feeding of our hearts and giving into our hearts, we are actually restricting ourselves from seeing the purity that comes with growing with God and seeing his heart above ours. When we know that the way that our desires, the way that my desires completely changed for the things that I wanted, where I wasn't asking God to give me the desires of my heart, I was delighting in him first, which is the full scripture. And I was recognizing that his ways are higher than my ways. But I want my ways to be like his. And I will surrender. I will have less of me and more of him, so I can walk so boldly in the things of God and be comfortable or at least okay at surrendering what I

want. Jeremiah 17: 25:23

9, one of my favorite scriptures to talk about this topic. This is the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can

understand it? And Romans 12: 25:34

2.

I love Romans 12:2. You guys know Romans 12: 25:37

1

as well? Romans 12: 25:41

2 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. But Elodie, like, if I don't get this thing, I don't even know about God anymore. Like, I have tried this, like, Christian thing for so long, but I have constantly felt like he's not giving me what I want. I've constantly felt like I'm begging for things, that my life isn't of value, that there's just no results in any part of my life. Can I break it to you that that literally isn't the purpose of being a Christian? The good news is not that Jesus came to die and rise again so that you can have everything. Jesus came to die and rise again so you could have him, meaning a true relationship with him that transcends physical blessings. And I think this is the sad part that I see with so many people that are kind of tiptoeing between the world and God and not sure if they want to, like, fully plunge in. Like, they're kind of like their toesies are in there. Maybe they've got a knee deep, but they ran out again and they can't get deep into that true, genuine relationship with God. And I Think a massive part to play in that is because they've not sought a deep relationship with God, meaning that they have not seen God as everything. They have not seen God as the sole answer to their problems. They have still had their eyes on other things to solve their problem, hoping that God will bring them those things and then the problem will be solved. So I want money, and money will make me happy. God will give me money, I will be happy and everything will be okay. But what people would don't realize is that God wants to take out the aspects of money and make sure that you are happy and you are satisfied without the money. It's not to say that God won't bless you with money, but when you are blessed with the money, you would have been joyful. Regardless, you're grateful to God that He has solved a material need. But spiritually you don't need the money to have the need fulfilled because you have all things through Christ. And when you get the money, you won't run away from God, you won't neglect him, but instead you worship him all the more and you grow in a relationship with him that says if God never blessed me again, I am blessed. I've thought so many times to myself, like, if I was homeless right now, if everything got taken away from me, if I was on the street, cold, like I lost everything, everyone. I'm not saying didn't get me wrong, girl, I'm gonna have my cry. I'm gonna be like, God, why did you do this? A full blown job moment. But I think to myself, and obviously I'll never know by the way. But hypothetically I've thought about and I'd be like, why? I'd have God and I'd have prayer and I'd have hope that transcends where I'm at right now. Hope for the physical, yes, believing that God will bring me out of my situation. But also if he didn't, I still will be brought out of my situation when I meet him in glory in heaven. And I will live every day knowing that whilst there is still breath in my lungs that there is a purpose. I'm not saying it won't take me long to get to that point because I defo would be angry and confused and upset. But I compare my answer to that now versus even two years ago, I would feel like I have nothing because my relationship with God was nowhere near as deep. I felt very rocky in certain aspects. Whereas now, like I know, like wherever, whatever corner of the earth I find myself, God is there. Whereas, like, I couldn't have guaranteed that in the past. And I would have hoped that I would still have the material comforts to be a buffer to those times where I didn't feel like God was enough. And I think when you live a life like that, you let go of the demanding behavior that you can have when it comes to God, that you are begging, that you are always coming from a point of asking, but you are recognizing the glory of the king of kings and you are seeing that your life can truly be transformed beyond what you, you even think is possible in life. Like, I am not a millionaire. I am not famous. I do not have, you know, a maid running after me. I don't have a pool in my house. I don't even own a house because I live with my parents at this moment in time. I have a very normal life and I am privileged. Don't get me wrong. I'm so grateful because I live as, like the top percentage of the world. But as you're listening to this, I can assume that majority of you are coming from similar upbringings to me. Money may or may not have been a problem, but you've got the general privileges of, like, you are watching this on a phone right now. You have a laptop or a TV or whatever it may be. And there's nothing glamorous. You know, we're better off than some people in the world right now. But I look at my life and yes, I always will be an ambitious person that wants more, but, like, for God's kingdom and for my future family and yada, yada, yada. But I feel rich, spiritually rich. I used to want to be famous so bad. Like, my mum would try and, like, convince me, like, no, you don't want to be famous. Like, I don't want stalkers on you. I don't want the paparazzi. I don't want them ruining you. I don't want you to go through, like a whole Britney Spears moment. But I was convinced I was going to be famous. I don't know. Doing what? I have no idea. I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't act. I probably just been a Kardashian at this point. Like, I would have just, like, I don't even know how I would have even got there. But I wouldn't have been doing anything for my talent, I can tell you that. But now, like, I look at celebrities and I'm sad for them. They live a definitely more comforting life than I do with material things. But spiritually they are so broken, and they are so swayed away, and they don't have even the basic things, like a support system around them. I remember watching Paris Hilton's documentary on YouTube and she was kind of saying, like, you know, the different boyfriends that she's gone through, like, toxic relationships, friends that have turned out not to be real friends and have, like, you know, snitched on her to the paparazzi, like, true bonding friends shouldn't have. And I look now at my life and how God has transformed me and grown me to not be so take, take, take without giving back. In the sense of spiritually, I feel richer than her. I feel richer than a Kardashian. I feel richer than, like, Beyonce. Like, I've got Christ, and there's nothing more that will ever give me that satisfaction. I'm not saying there aren't physical comforts in this world that I want, but I don't want them to feel better about myself. I don't want them to satisfy me, and I don't want them to prove my relationship with God either. I don't want it to be like, if I get this, then I will serve God, and if I don't get this, and I will walk away from God. Because that's what a lot of people do when they see God as a genie and God so say doesn't come through, they run away. But what they don't realize is sometimes God's rejection is his protection. And in him giving you that gift, he could actually be harming you. Because it's not a gift. It's actually a trap. And I think of it in a lot of different ways. Like, when I was going through that time of, like, praying for my boyfriend, Ex boyfriend, and wanting him back and whatever, if God gave him back to me, period. Because we weren't meant to be together. Because I found the love of my life. Thank you so much. But then also, at the time that I was in, the time that he was in, we were kids, so stupid and young and, like, we clearly weren't made for each other. Probably should have just stayed friends. I say that about most of my exes that, like, this weird thing when you're a teenager that, like, you get along with the opposite sex and you instantly think that you guys should, like, get married and have kids, which is just wild. I could have saved myself a lot of heartbreak if I just thought, we have, like, the same banter. Let's just be friends. I didn't do that. If. If God gave him back to me, at that time, he wouldn't have been loving God. If God gave him back to me, period. He wouldn't have been in loving God. Why? Because it wasn't the best. He wasn't the best for me. I wasn't the best for him. I wasn't even in the mental space to handle myself, let alone a boyfriend. I constantly look for men for validation, even though I told myself that I didn't. But I knew deep down that I did a very clear estimation of whether your life is determined, like, your happiness is determined by a man. Because I know a lot of people be like, no, like, I don't need a man. I just want a man. If you are happier, like, noticeably happier, normal, productive, sociable. When you have a man in your life versus when you don't. And I don't just mean through a breakup. I just mean when you don't have a man in your life. And, like, is your personality less than. Do you hide away from people? Do you constantly yearn and imagine and fantasize over having a boyfriend, over being a productive human being who is happy regardless? And that's what I realized in my life. That I got, like, massive dopamine hits from either physically having a boyfriend or just getting male attention. If I had male attention, if someone was, like, texting me at that point or I was, like, linking someone. Terrible word, by the way. I felt like a better person. And when I didn't have anyone around, I was, like, itching to find someone to, like, occupy me, even if they weren't my boyfriend, even if they were just, like, someone to show me attention, someone to talk to, whatever. I didn't really care. I wanted true love, ideally, but as long as someone was, like, telling me I was pretty and, like, wanting to, like, be around me and, like, show me, like, physical attention. Oh, my gosh. And that is idolatry, people, ladies and gentlemen. And imagine if God just says, like, yeah, I'll give him back to you at that point in my life. Are you for real? No. That would have been the most unloving thing that God could do. Because I needed the breakup. I needed, like, a reality check. And he was not, like, being in a relationship was not going to fill that void. I needed a break. I needed. And I needed, like, to reevaluate my entire perception of men and my entire perception of me separately, but then me in a relationship as well, that, like, your life isn't your man. Like, you can, you know, you can still be a person when you're not with him. So I say all of that to say, if God did give you everything that you asked for, I can almost guarantee that your life would be complete shambles because what you think you want is not actually what you need. And Proverbs 3 verses, 5 to 6. Love this scripture. I love the Bible really and truly, because I say this about every scripture, but I love the scripture so much. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. And in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. If you just decide to include God in one component and not others, and you're so confused why your life is crumbling, this scripture tells you in all your ways, not just in this little area that you feel comfortable bringing God in in every way. You don't surrender to God in one area and then think you kind of have earned genie rights from God. God is still not a genie. That is practically blasphemous. It is blasphemous, but I'm not going to make you feel guilty about that because we've all been there. It is blasphemous to say that you as a human being, a mere tiny little widdle human being on this earth, that God created the whole thing where you are demanding him to give you something. Imagine like, an aunt started talking to you right now, and he was like, give me money. He'd be like, who are you? Flick that away. Because who are you talking to? And the fact that God still loves us. He wouldn't even flick us away. He'd be, like, stroking us, whatever. No, but I love you anyway. At least God does that. Because, see, for me, if an aunt started talking to me, I'd be like, who are you? Get out of my face. Do you even know who I am? And that I actually know more than you? And you're stupid. And what you think you want, you actually don't need. That's the same as God, but, like, he just handles it nicer than we ever would. So don't do that. Your pride will tell you what is right for you. But your pride is a literal reason why you haven't gone deeper with God yet. It is a literal reason why you are still tiptoeing between world and God, flesh and God, sin and God, money and God, fame and God, prosperity and God, sex and God, whatever it is, alcohol and God, drugs and God. It's the very reason why you're tiptoeing. Because your pride is literally feeding you lies. And it is playing on what your flesh is. It's just human psychology. Our minds are programmed by what we feed our minds. So if you are feeding your mind with what your mind already has and you expect yourself to level up, girl, like, it's, it's, it's literally like putting yourself in a room of sewage and just hoping that it smells like Febreze, hoping that it smells like vanish, like freshly washed clothes. It's going to smell like poop. It's gonna stink. And no matter how much, you know, mental work you do, and, like, I'm gonna try different, the room stinks until you leave that room, until you enter something else into that room, that room is going to continue to stink. What God does through his word is that he takes your brain that is full of poo and he gets his cleaning tools. He scrub a dub, dubs, he sprays. He. He puts some bleach in there. He, you know, vacuums and wipes down and put some candles in there and he makes it new. But until you let him in, you will be surrounded by your own poop, your own laziness, your own frustrations, your own pride, and you'll be confused why you're still the same. And this is where I really believe that, like, the whole genie perspective of God manifests into laziness. And then that laziness continues to manifest into why we struggle to have a true relationship with God. If you genuinely believe that, like, your way of life is better than God's way of life for you, and you will use God to get to your way of life, you will fail in every area of life. Your career will continue to crumble, your relationships will crumble, your mental health will crumble, and your relationship with God, if it ever existed in the first place, will most definitely crumble. And the only way to salvage that is by letting go of what you have expected from your life. Because if you, like, vicious cycles are so bad and so depressing, and if you're stuck in one of them right now, I genuinely sympathize with you, but I don't want to sympathize with you so much to the point where you believe that it's just down to bad luck. No, it's down to your messed up mindset. And that's just me being completely honest. Woman to woman, woman to man. If you are a guy that listens to this podcast instead of just surrendering, I'm realizing, like, okay, I have tried so many things and all these things have gone wrong. I probably should have. Not just the logic, but the humility to recognize that the sovereignty of God probably has a better plan for me. Rather than saying that turning things around, starting to adopt new habits, new mindsets, doing things differently with how you approach life struggles, you keep telling yourself that things will probably get better. And I'll just try it again. Oh, it didn't work this time. But like, next time it's different. I'm leveling up with what Bible? I don't know, just your mind that is filled with poo. But somehow we're gonna find a cleaning tool in there and we're gonna figure it out, which makes no sense whatsoever. And this is why you get caught in those cycles. This is why your life continues to let you down and you continue to let yourself down because you were never made to pick yourself up. Like, this is the problem when people believe that God is a genie because they think that that's like the most rosy way to see God. And it's actually the most oppressive way to see God. Because seeing God as a genie is saying that your mind has ultimate truth. As soon as you say that your mind has ultimate truth, you believe that you are God. If you believe that you are God, you won't continue to ask God for things. And then there won't even be any link to God, not even when you're asking stupid requests of him. When you believe that you are then your own God because you trust your own truth and you aren't seeking capital letter God, you put all emphasis on yourself to sort things out. When you put all emphasis on yourself to sort things out, you quickly realize that you can't sort out yourself because you are a human being who makes mistakes. And when you realize that you're a human being that makes mistakes, you can't even realize it. You can't come to terms with it. Because, hello, I am that person who has all divine truth. I am that person who is exactly what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it. So me not, not doing right of myself, I'm not even gonna acknowledge that. I'm just gonna keep going forward and I'm gonna keep trying and I'm gonna figure it out. But then when it keeps happening, I'm now depressed. I now hate myself. But instead of seeking God, I'm gonna try again. But now I'm gonna try again with an absolutely messed up mentality. I'm gonna try again. Even though my life is falling apart, even though my friendships are messed up, even though I'm struggling in my career and I hate my job. I might even be earning lots of money. But I hate it. And I just hate my life, even though I've had 10 breakups in the last year because my standards are trash. But I'll figure it out. It'll be fine. That is what happens when that small thought of, I am going to ask God exactly what I want. That's what happens. That is what happens when you plant that tiny seed in your head that you can have some kind of independence when it comes to your life. No, we are not sims. And we don't need, you know, God to tell us when to get up. And if there's something in the way that we just, like, go yabadoo and then get angry that, you know, we can't step over our bag that's on the floor. I'm not saying that. But when we don't see ourselves as vessels that, like, through all things, in all your ways, acknowledge him. If we don't have that in our mind, we will get stuck in the same mindset. And do you see how, like, the example that I was describing of someone who was stuck in these cycles? They keep trying, but they are almost trying with a defeatist mentality. They hope somehow that it's going to work out, but they don't hope enough. It's almost like they want it so bad, but they. They don't want it enough that they're willing to change. And that, my friends, is laziness. And that is when you get caught so much in this trap that you aren't even proactive, that you keep trying. You keep slogging on over and over for years and just let you almost start letting life happen, too. It's not even like you get up and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna try again. You just let life hit you over and over again. You just take whatever comes. That is not what God wants for you. And if you think that God is gonna bless you with these things, you've got another thing coming, because he doesn't want that in your life and you getting what you want. Maybe it's a boyfriend that never works out. He wasn't meant to work out because the way he's treating you is not in alignment with the word of God. I've been there. If I got some of the boyfriends that I really wanted so badly, I would have ended up in extremely toxic relationships. I was already in toxic ones. But you think if I just, you know, prayed that we could be together forever and get married and have kids, A. That's an extremely depressing, like, life for Me, period. But then I'm bringing children into the mix. God forbid I rebuke that for myself and for you, in the name of Jesus. Because God does not want your cycles of trauma and messed up mentalities to get in the way of what he has planned for you. And my favorite quote ever, that if you are my friend, you have heard this from me at least once. Albert Einstein, my guy, Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I say that to everyone because it's true. Because when you're in those vicious cycles, but you just, you just become a pawn in your own cycle. That's insanity. The fact that you think somehow it's going to work out, that is insanity. And you need to get help from Christ. Proverbs 16, verse 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fool. Pride in my mind is idolatry of self. And if you expect God to be your genie, you have created a version of him that is not in alignment with the Bible. Meaning that you have created God in your own image. Meaning that you have made yourself God. Even if in your mind you see God as this person in the sky, that person is someone who affirms every single one of your actions. Meaning that he is not there to refine you. He is not there to grow you. He is not there to help you serve his kingdom. He is there solely for your needs and your needs only, even if those needs are destructive. Meaning that you are your own God. So that person that you think of in the sky is you. And how many times have you let yourself down? How many times have you cried looking in the mirror that you're not good enough? How many times have you been insecure and you've left the house this week? How many times have you made a mistake in work, at school, with a friend? How many times have you beaten yourself up over something that you deeply regret doing? That's the God you want to worship. My gosh. And if you have done that, you have created a golden calf. I remember reading Exodus so many times, so many times, and being so frustrated. Exodus is one of my favorite books in the Bible. But I have been so frustrated at times with the Israelites for just being them, being so rebellious, so moany and annoying and just, ugh. Why can't you just follow the plan, people? But what I realized over time, reading Genesis, reading Exodus, is that they represent us. We are the Israelites. We are the very people that we are frustrated at for making golden Calf, for rejecting God, for Turning a short journey into a very long one because of their lack of gratitude and their lack of worship to God, my friend, which is what I wanted to talk about. We were talking about idolatry. And she was saying how when Moses went to Mount Sinai to get the ten Commandments and bring them down, and in that time, the Israelites created a golden calf. They not only created a golden calf that was in alignment with what they wanted out of. Out of God, a God that affirmed them and a God that granted their every wish. They didn't have the patience to wait for what was coming from Moses. And maybe they didn't have the stomach to take it. Maybe they knew that what Moses was going to bring down was something so holy and something so sovereign, and they didn't have the maturity to stomach that. So instead they made a counterfeit God so they could have something that was easier to come to terms with, something that felt more natural, more hedonistic to worship. Because at the end of the day, the Israelites were following their flesh. They wanted something that felt easy to them. They didn't want something that challenged them, which meant that they weren't looking in the eyes of God. They were looking in the eyes of self to come up with a God. And by doing so, they weren't even worshiping God. They weren't even worshiping the golden calf. They were worshiping themselves. And you can read about that in Exodus 32. I definitely recommend you just reading Exodus period. There's so many life lessons. You have to just read it with like. Like when it says Israelite, it's just put like, your name in it. And then you're like, oh, yeah, I do that. And then Isaiah 55, verses 8 to 9 says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord. If your idea of God is too close to how you see yourself, it's not God. Like, I could just tell you that right now. And don't get me wrong, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and in Christ, we are all those things that God calls us to. But I mean in the fleshly sense of the word. If you see God mimicking your behaviors and your negative patterns and just the way that you ask for things and pray for things, if you see that God is someone who agrees with that and grants that and is okay with that, you aren't worshiping God. And you need to readjust your viewpoint of God because God is holy. He is a holy God in whom we worship, not because he satisfies desires, but because He Himself is worthy to be praised. He Himself is not just holy, but loving. And he is not just loving, but he is holy. And there's so much to worship him for, for just simply being alive, having breath in our lungs as a reason to worship Him. And we will never know the height and the depth of his love for us, nor will we ever know the holiness of Him. All we can do is study His Word and slowly become more like him, because that's what we were called to be. From the foundations of the earth, God created man and woman in the likeness, the image and likeness of Him. But our flesh and our pride and our rebellion has pushed us further and further away from that image. But in Christ, we have that image. And we need to allow God to transform us, to not be so caught up with what we want, but accept what God wants. To forget about the idea that God is a genie, but see him as our Lord and our Savior. When you truly allow God to be Lord of your life and take away you being the Lord of your own life, you will see transformation that you never thought possible. You will actually begin to forget about the things that you have asked God for that were in alignment with Him. And if you do remember, you will laugh and you will thank God that He didn't give it to you, either at all, or in that way, or at that time. Our God is divine in every aspect, meaning that he is timely and he has everything worked out for your good. Psalm

47: 57:22

10 says, Be still and know that I am God. And I love that verse for so many reasons. Stillness in our worry, but also stillness in our desire to want to be God. So be still and know that he is God. But I love you guys. I hope that that was of benefit. I really do pray that it has encouraged you to go deeper to know your Word as well. I did a podcast about knowing your Bible, and I think this is a very key thing that can happen when we don't know our Bible, that we create an image of God that does not represent God, which means we end up asking God for things that aren't of his will. So know your Word, get into your Word and have that recognition that if he is God, then he is God over your life. So God is God over every component. He's not just God when you need Him. He's not just God when He grants your wishes. He is God. He is Lord. He is King of Kings, Lord of lords, seated far above all principalities and powers. But anyways, I love you guys so much. I pray that this helped, and I will see you guys in the next episode. Bye.