Remember the phrase: you never stop learning? Well, today we see why that is. King Solomon was recently annointed king over Israel. He had survived two hostile takeover attempts by his older brothers, Absalom and Adonijah. As king, he was finally able to step out of the shadow of his father and mother and the other two brothers. I won’t get into how the two older brothers were thwarted, but it was now all over. Solomon, the Bible says, “loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.” (v3). This prompted God to ask Solomon, “What shall I give you?” (v5). Wow! What an awesome request! Man! If God asked me that question! We know how we would answer, but let’s see how Solomon answers: Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? (1 Kings 3:7-9) Solomon recognizes that he was young, inexperienced and grossly unprepared for the duty that laid before him. He understood that he was where he was by the works of God and not by any intervention or circumstance he, himself, conjured and manipulated. So he asks God for a “discerning heart.” In other translations, that phrase is simply “wisdom.” It takes incredible humility and self-awareness to ask for wisdom. After all, who isn’t, already, the greatest and wisest in front of their mirrors? If we were just honest with ourselves, wouldn’t we ask for wisdom, too? Of course we would! That is because with wisdom, we can gain and accomplish everything else! But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. How about today you love God as a child loves their parents. I don’t mean like in love and hate as we are disciplined and/or told what and what not to do. But loving your parents as people that are idolized and revered as gods, because parents are usually a child’s first heroes. I mean, have we loved God like that? Solomon loved God that way. Maybe when we ask God for something in our prayers today we ask Him to help us love Him and praise Him and adore Him. Then maybe we will have enough wisdom to know that we are just children and in-over-our-heads for what He prepared for us. Trust me, God has given you a responsibility way greater than you realize.
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