A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language 55
Topic: Make A Wish--For Living Water
Series: My Little Pony
Episodes: The Magic Coins Parts 1 and 2, The Prince And The Ponies
Lesson PDF link: 55.pdf
Note: I want to give special thanks to Collin McSweeney for helping to get the "My Little Pony Series"
Introduction
If you could make a wish what would it be for? Please understand that we don't have to have even Biblical wishes here. For example, if I had some wishes, it would be that rain that falls would be gentle (no violent storms--I am afraid of lightning). I would wish for a little more popularity in life and ministry. I would wish for life necessities (food, money, different shelter etc.) to be readily mine when I'd want it. On a more helpful note, I would wish for ample food and other life necessities for everyone to go around and that everyone and everything get it.
I am going to show some clips from My Little Pony. First, we will have a clip from "The Magic Coins Part 1", then we will have a couple of clips from "The Prince And The Ponies", then we will have another couple of clips from "The Magic Coins Part 1", we will have a small Bible study and then a clip from "The Magic Coins Part 2".
Show Clip #1 from "The Magic Coins Part 1":
What do you see in this clip?
As you can see, the ponies innocently at first, make wishes on these coins. These wishes appear playful, but they are already causing damage, like almost losing Molly in an almost unpoppable bubble and too much food too fast to eat. The food in real life may not last long enough to eat even eventually. We find out these are magic coins and misusing the wishes that the coins grant can be dangerous.
Let's go a little bit deeper. Have you ever wished harm on someone and it actually happened? Hopefully, the answer to both parts of this question is no, however it is dangerous physically and spiritually to even think of such a thing, even if it does not come true. Here's what could happen if one does.
Show Clip #1 from "The Prince And The Ponies":
What do you see in this clip?
We see a very foolish wish on the part of the One- Tooth Ponies group. They are wishing bad things on what looks to be possibly their siblings. This, I understand is true of growing families sometimes, envy and jealousy are common with older siblings because the younger ones need more care and the older ones feel left out.
Show Clip #2 from "The Prince And The Ponies":
What do you see in this clip?
The kids get one of their ideas for a wish, but they are unhappy. Why?
These kids are really good kids if even a little misguided by their own need to have attention. This can happen even as adults. Now we are going to get deeper still.
Show Clip #2 from "The Magic Coins Part 1":
Show Clip #3 from "The Magic Coins Part 1":
What do you see in these clips?
This is a wish for no rain forever. This is an extremely dangerous wish if granted. Everything dies without water including people and animals. Our friends in this clip would die if God doesn't intervene. These are some of the same friends that saved Molly, remember. Have you ever wished for such a thing? This could be a classic kid's wish because he/she may not be able to get out and play safely.
The Bible States In Matthew 18: 18-20
18 "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 "Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
This scripture might be a surprise to end up here, because for a wish like one of these to be granted it needs to be in God's will to begin with and faith has to be in the heart of the wisher. However, I know one thing about God, He has made it so curses have power and so do blessings. All of the wishes in these clips have all been selfish or evil, even if not intended. God sometimes allows and wills a wish like this to teach a lesson to us to use prayer and faith wisely.
The Bible States In I Corinthians 14: 20:
20 Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
This scripture is definitely a scripture that is a stand-alone truth, even though the context is about speaking in tongues. We also need to remember this scripture.
The Bible States In Philippians 1: 9-11
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
These wishes from these various ponies were not discerning and were impulsive. Most of them were made by children which is typical because critical thinking is usually not a child's strong suit and needs to be learned. Love instead of selfishness will grow more abundant with wisdom and yes age. As far as the very first wish made by Fizzy, she didn't know and is therefore not as much wrong as she needs to be careful what she wishes for and be satisfied with her already great gift of bubble making. A little more strength would seem nice though for volleyball with a bubble. However, when we make foolish wishes and in an adult's case, wantonly so, innocence turns into sin fast.
Let's go further though. Have you ever wished that God would go away because of selfishness, as in, not getting your way, or because of a loss of someone close to you etc.?
Hopefully, the answer is no, but this can be common on an impulsive and weak time in one's life. We become like the Baby Sea Ponies in this clip.
Show Clip from "The Magic Coins Part 2":
What do you see in this clip?
I am wanting to zero in on the words "natural habitat". Wind Whistler is very correct. This parallels nicely to our Christian walk. Our natural habitat is inside Jesus Christ's kingdom and is what He wants.
The Bible States In John 7: 37-39
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Without our Lord Jesus Christ we will dry up spiritually and die. As the water in Ponyland is the source of life for all of its land and plants and the Baby Sea Ponies group especially we all need the life giving water of God's Spirit in our lives. If we wish this water to go away by means of wishing His presence and blessing away because of impulse, we will surely want Him back if we know what's good for us. For some people, they wish to be on their own and then nothing really goes right eventually because no presence = no true blessing and we must know the difference of God's presence vs. not. Everyone will know in this life probably and in the life hereafter definitely. We must have the Living Water of Jesus flowing through us to not literally dry up and die in our spirits eventually.
The Bible States In Romans 6: 19-23:
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What have we learned?
Even my wishes that are talked about in the beginning of this lesson would probably not turn out as well as intended because it could easily hurt God's display of power, mercy, judgment etc. as He needs to show all of these as He chooses, in other words, the way He sees fit--however prayer for lack of disaster or plentiful food are not bad in themselves; these kinds of wishes are very human wishes, even angry wishes a lot of times come from very human emotions. Remember, we need to pray His will not ours.
We can see a few things from the clips and a little critical thinking. All these ponies' wishes made them reap some kind of disaster. Sin is like this because it also brings disaster of some type in either this life and/or the hereafter. Sin is most rooted in some form of selfishness invariably, even with the different kinds there are. Sin may even be enjoyable at times, but it doesn't last long and the result isn't what we are hoping for. Every pony that made a wish look like they regretted making it because the result was not as much fun or had an unfortunate catch like all sin does.
We need to be ready and willing to let Jesus control our destiny in life and beyond, and yes, accept His invitation of living water to our souls and our lives.