Wish Christian Review: Prayer Is Not a Wish

We offer so many prayers to God. “Please solve this problem.” “Please give me this.” “Please protect my family.” “Please let this work out.” Sometimes, in only five minutes of prayer, we can begin with ourselves, move on to our families and churches, then our country, regions at war, and even world peace. In a sense, we can travel around the entire world through prayer. But as I thought again about Disney’s Wish, one interesting question came to mind: Are prayer and wishes really the same thing?

The people of Rosas entrust their most precious wishes to King Magnifico. Amazingly, the moment they give them away, they even forget what those wishes were. From then on, they simply live while waiting for the king to fulfill their wishes someday. In a strange way, this reminded me of how we sometimes pray. We pray earnestly and then say, “I have given it to God, so He will take care of it,” yet sometimes we go on living without even remembering what we prayed for. Of course, entrusting something to God is an act of faith. But entrusting something to God and doing nothing while simply waiting for the outcome are not the same thing. Wish is a film about wishes, but as I watched it, I found myself thinking instead about what prayer actually is.

“Ask and It Will Be Given to You”: Prayer Is Not a Spell

In Matthew 7:7–11, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” If we isolate this verse from its context, it might sound as though God is promising that if we simply ask hard enough for anything we want, we will eventually receive it. The Bible can easily be interpreted in the direction we already want when we remove one verse from the larger story of Scripture. That is why we should not build our understanding of prayer around one isolated sentence, but instead consider what Scripture as a whole teaches about prayer and about the character of God.

Scripture certainly tells us to bring our needs to God. There is nothing wrong with honestly telling Him what we want. Yet prayer is not a spell designed to make God produce the result we desire. Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane shows this with remarkable clarity. Facing the suffering of the cross, Jesus honestly asked that the cup might be taken from Him, yet in Luke 22:42 He ultimately prayed, “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” I believe this is one of the most important distinctions between a wish and a prayer. A wish says, “I want this, so please make it happen.” Prayer can go one step further and say, “God, this is what I desire. But if Your will is different from mine, I am willing to surrender my own.”

If we trust God only when His answer is “Yes,” but begin to resent Him when the answer is “No,” perhaps we are not truly praying so much as trying to use God to accomplish our wishes. Prayer is not the work of moving God toward my will. I believe prayer is the work of placing my heart before the will of God.

Magnifico: When Our Wishes Begin to Control Us

It would be too simple to say that King Magnifico’s original idea is entirely evil from the beginning. He believes that keeping the people’s wishes under his control will protect the kingdom from dangerous desires. Perhaps he believes that if everyone were allowed to receive everything they wanted, society itself could fall into chaos.

Honestly, this reminded me of Bruce Almighty. In that film, Bruce temporarily receives the powers of God, becomes overwhelmed by the endless prayers coming from people everywhere, and eventually decides simply to answer “Yes” to all of them. The result is not a better world. Instead, everything descends into even greater chaos. If everything we wanted were guaranteed to happen, would that really create a happy world? Two people may want the same job. Two people may want to marry the same person. Someone may pray for his team to win while someone on the opposing team wants exactly the same thing. Human desires collide with one another.

For that reason, Magnifico’s original belief that not every wish should automatically be granted is, to some extent, understandable. The problem begins when he stops being someone who protects wishes and becomes someone who owns them. He begins deciding which wishes are good, who deserves to have a wish fulfilled, and whose future is too dangerous. Eventually, the power itself begins to control him.

Our desires can work in a similar way. At first, we possess a wish, but eventually the wish can begin to possess us: “I must get this job.” “I must marry this person.” “I must become this successful.” “God must answer this prayer exactly the way I want.” Something that began as a request offered to God can gradually become a condition we place upon Him. Desire itself is not always sinful. But the moment I hold onto what I want more tightly than I hold onto God, that desire can begin to function like an idol. Just as Magnifico tries to control the wishes of others and is eventually consumed by their power, we too can become ruled by what we are desperate to obtain.

The Star Does Not Fulfill the Wish for Them: Pinocchio and Wish

Watching the little Star in Wish naturally reminded me of another Disney film: Pinocchio. In both stories, stars and wishes play important roles. Yet what interests me is that in neither story does the star simply solve everything on behalf of the characters.

When Star appears in Wish, the problems of Rosas do not disappear while Asha sits still. Asha and her friends have to act. The people themselves eventually have to rise up and reclaim the wishes that were taken from them. Star does not live their lives for them. Instead, Star becomes a catalyst that helps them remember what they have lost and begin moving again.

The same is true in Pinocchio. Geppetto wishes for Pinocchio to become a real boy, but Pinocchio does not instantly become human simply because a wish was made upon a star. He goes through mistakes, temptations, and painful lessons. Eventually, he personally goes in search of his father when Geppetto is trapped inside the whale, risking even his own life to save him. Only at the end of that journey does Pinocchio become a real boy.

This makes me think about our own prayers. Do we sometimes pray and then wait for the result without taking any action ourselves? We cannot pray to do well on an exam while refusing to study. We cannot pray for a healthy relationship while refusing to forgive, love, or make the first effort ourselves. We cannot continually ask God to reveal a calling while refusing forever to step outside the place where we feel safe. James 2:17 says that faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. This does not mean that our actions earn God’s favor or force God to answer our prayers. Rather, genuine faith changes how we live.

Prayer is not magic that replaces action. Sometimes the very person who prayed may also be the person God calls to move in response to that prayer. After praying, we trust God—but we also faithfully do what has been placed before us today.

Comparative Analysis: A Wish and a Prayer

Not Every Wish Comes True: Prayer Means Listening for God’s Voice, Not Only Our Own

Ultimately, Wish does not simply teach that “every wish must come true.” Instead, the people recover their wishes and regain the opportunity to live toward them themselves. I think this also reveals an important difference between wishing and praying. Not every prayer we offer is answered in exactly the way we want. We are free to speak honestly to God about our desires; we do not need to hide our hopes from Him. But I believe the final purpose of prayer is not to persuade God to give us what we want. It is for us to become increasingly prepared to receive His will.

1 John 5:14 says that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. The important phrase is not simply “ask anything,” as though every request must be fulfilled in the form we choose, but “according to His will.” That is why listening is as important to prayer as speaking. We can pour out our words to God, say “Amen,” and immediately get up from our seats. But perhaps prayer should also include moments when we become quiet enough to listen for what God is saying through His Word and to submit ourselves to His direction.

Prayer may begin with, “God, please give me this.” But perhaps over time it should increasingly become, “God, this is what I want—but what do You desire?” And when God leads us in a direction different from the one we wanted, faith may eventually be able to say, “Even if I do not understand, I will trust Your will.”

At the end of Wish, the people of Rosas escape a life in which they had handed their wishes over to Magnifico, forgotten them, and simply waited. They receive those wishes back. But the Christian life asks an even deeper question than simply recovering our desires: What do I want, and what does God want? Those two things will not always be the same.

Perhaps prayer is not placing what I want into God’s hand while still gripping it tightly and demanding that He make it happen. Perhaps prayer is opening my hand and placing even the wish I have been holding onto before God.

So as I watched Wish, I found myself asking: Am I really praying to God, or am I simply making wishes in front of God’s name? After I finish praying, am I still listening only to my own voice, or am I willing to become quiet enough to hear His?

A wish describes the future I want. Prayer may ultimately mean entrusting even my future to God and confessing:

“Not my will, but Yours be done.”

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Explore More Screen Devotions:

• 🎬 Movies: Explore Other Faith-Based Film Reflections
• 🌍 Documentaries: Biblical Perspectives on Real-World Issues

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.