If You Could Ask for Just One Thing …

 

1 Kings 3:4-15 - The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

“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?”

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.  So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice,  I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.  Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.  And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”  Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream.

 

 

We will give a one-day shout out to Solomon, David’s son.  After all, he was the one chosen by God to build the first Temple in Jerusalem, an event of such importance that it cannot be overstated.  But for me, the most significant thing about Solomon was that he goes down in history as an icon of wisdom and discernment. 

 

“From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.”                             1 Kings 4:34

 

God asks the young Solomon what he wants and he doesn’t choose wealth, women, power, or the death of his enemies.  He asks for wisdom.  Asking for wisdom is itself wisdom.  Proverbs 4:7 states:

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

So before God grants Solomon wisdom, Solomon displays it.  God gives him more.  Solomon uses it.  And using wisdom actually leads to more wisdom.

The reality is that God didn’t just choose Solomon to have wisdom.  God desires that we all have it and use it.  James 1:5 reminds us that, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

When was the last time you asked God for wisdom?  When was the last time you put some wisdom God gave you to good use?

 

Prayer:  Lord, give us wisdom and discernment for these uncertain days. Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for our country today that has been further divided by the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court.

 

Song:  Wisdom Song - Laura Woodley Osman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMnIVe4-QUY

Matthew 13:51-52 - The Greatness of Crazy Times

The Greatness of Crazy Times - November 8, 2021

 

Matthew 13:51-52, NLT - Do you understand all these things?”

“Yes,” they said, “we do.”

Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.”

 

I hope all of you have had the experience of at going through at least one season of awakenings.  By that, I mean a season where you are discovering new insights at such a rapid pace that you can actually notice how you are changing in real time.  I have had a few such seasons, but the one that stands out for me above the others is a time during 1995-97.  In the space of one month in 1995, I graduated from seminary, began my first full-time appointment as a Pastor, and became a father for the first time.  I can feel the stress of all that even now as I remember it two and half decades later.  However, my memory of that time is very sweet.  I think I learned more in the next two to three years than I had in in other period of my life before.  That’s saying a lot because I had just finished twenty years of formal education!  Looking at that time now, I can see that it was the two decades of formal education that “set me up” for that flood of insights as my education met the reality of living and working in the “real world.”  The “old” knowledge of my childhood was combined and enhanced with the “new” wisdom I was gaining being a full-time pastor and new father. 

There have been other periods of streaming insight since then, but they have all been different.  One such period was the year following a two-week trip to the Holy Land.  My view of scripture has never been the same since walking the terrain where so much of that scripture happened.  Another rich period of wisdom followed some deeply painful experiences and losses.  All of these periods of breakthrough, though, involved the combination of new experience and insight with what I had known before. 

I think this is what Jesus is talking about above in his comments to his disciples.  He has been pouring into them new experience and wisdom about the in-breaking kingdom of God that is happening before their very eyes.  However, what they are experiencing and learning only enhances what they have already known.  They see the old in a new light and re now able to offer more to those that they will serve.  Jesus is reminding them that it’s okay to embrace new insight without fear of “losing” cherished beliefs and convictions from the past.  Those old insights still have value and are still part of them. 

This is so important for us to remember right now.  Collectively, the human race is going through one of those periods of incredible change and insight right now.  The pandemic has forced us to look at much of the “old ways” through a new lens.  This can be a time when a synthesis of the old and new can forge new wisdom to meet our challenges.  While we will have to let go of much from the past, the past is still part of who we are and will always be.  Our new understanding on the other side of this seminal time is built on the foundation of all that we knew before. 

I’d be lying if I said that I’m excited about all this.  Frankly, I’m deeply disturbed by a lot of what I see happening now.  I’m also a bit disoriented because I don’t know where it all is going.  Many who experienced Jesus firsthand were just as disturbed and disoriented by what they were seeing.  It would be much later that these disturbed and disoriented disciples would become the great apostles of the church that we revere two thousand years later.  It took them a while to digest what Jesus was giving them and integrate it with all they had known before.  It will be the same for us.

 

Question: What are you learning or experiencing right now that has shed new light on something you knew or experienced before now?

 

Prayer:  God, open our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds to what is happening right now before our very eyes.  Give us insight into how our present experience can enhance our experience of the past and prepare us for all that is coming next.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for teachers you know today.

 

Song:  Teach Your Children – Crosby, Stills, and Nash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpAdkomvAIg