Your will be done
1 Kings 3:9a “Give your servant a discerning heart.”
Imagine for a moment that God came to you and said to you “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
First of all you might be surprised that you were given such an opportunity. Secondly you might be overwhelmed thinking what would be the one thing you would ask God for.
If you go back 4 verses in 1 Kings chapter 3 before our verse for this week, this is exactly what God said to Solomon.
In the face of most of the people of his time worshipping false gods, we are told that “Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.” (1 Kings 3:3).
Even Solomon had fallen to the temptation of sacrificing to false gods. Yet when the Lord came to him Solomon did not ask for riches or fame or other such earthly things which most human beings might desire.
He simply and humbly asked “Give your servant a discerning heart.” To put this in plain words, Solomon said “God, please give me the wisdom to know what to do in each and every situation of life”. If you read the next few verses of 1 Kings 3 you will see that God was pleased with Solomon’s request and not only gave him what he asked for, but also told Solomon that he would give him riches and honor and if Solomon obeyed God, God would also give him a long life.
Stop and think for a moment of the things which are asked for in your daily prayers. We ask God to make this person better or solve this problem in our life. We ask God to bless this person or even are bold enough to request blessings for ourselves. Maybe you asked God for help in a difficult situation, but have you ever asked God to help you know how to handle every situation in exactly the way which would be pleasing to him?
How easily our sinful heart takes over and we want more money or other blessings, we want our life to be free of all the problems we have or we want God to give us whatever we want. Think for a moment what we pray each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer – “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Do you really mean that when you pray the Lord’s Prayer? Are you willing to accept whatever God wants in each and every situation of your life and the lives of those around you? Or, are you just mindlessly saying the words of the prayer with no intent to submit your entire life to the will of God?
There are so many things we can learn if we pay attention to the interactions of God with other believers on the pages of the Bible. This week let’s learn from Solomon how to truly and honestly pray “thy will be done”.