Life Prayer: King Solomon

Our first reading is from the First Book of Kings, and it’s a well known passage from the Old Testament and I would assume many of you will be familiar with it.

This is a great passage for us to focus on when thinking about life…about how to live each day to the fullest.

And the context that we set this in is this…Jesus gives us life, when we turn our life over to Him. But then…we need to continue to make decisions don’t we? And those can be tough…so what is our worldview…we’ve talked about that recently too.

How do we see the world? I think, from what we’ve been looking at, that we can say that our worldview should be … God created all - through Jesus, Jesus offers us the best life possible, taking us back to the principles of the Garden,

To receive this life Jesus offers we simply receive it…not chase it, and to receive it well, we need to give up everything about us, so He can regenerate-recreate-remake us into His image.

Repent of our sins…turn…and allow the spirit to change us.

So this is a great little passage to focus on.

The setting is the very early days of the reign of King Solomon.

Solomon’s the son of David and Bathsheba. He becomes the king after a bit of an internal family struggle.

But here he’s a young kid, Not experienced. He has seen his dad rule…but he’s never been in this position before. King Evidence points to an age around 20 or just over that.

Can you imagine? Most here have probably started a new job a few times in life…and you might say to yourself, “I’m just not really up to it.”

And so you pour out your heart to God and you ask.

And we see this in 1 Kings 3:5-9

1 Kings 3:5–9 NIV

5 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.” 6 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. 7 “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. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 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?”

Lord I really don’t know what to do.

I totally get that. Think of anytime you’ve moved into a position of responsibility and you just say, “I don’t think I’m up to this.”

So, “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.”

What a prayer.

He could have asked for anything.

See, that’s the point.

He’s this young kid, and “I don’t really feel up to this job, so give me, Lord, a lot of money and wealth. Lord, give me the nicest palace in the world.

Lord, make my enemies afraid of me. Lord, make my army the greatest in the world.”

I mean, he could have asked for any of those things.

Wealth, honor, pleasure, power, the usual things that we might ask for. That winning lottery ticket. Why? Because often we think…those are the things that will help me live well.

But he doesn’t.

He asks for a wise and discerning heart,

the brainpower…the heart... to distinguish right from wrong.

See, what’s he asking for?

He’s asking to see his world from the perspective of God. He wants to govern…to live…to make choices as God would.

He’s asking to be able to govern with the mind and the heart of God.

You see how important that is?

If you have all those things, unless you can see the world from God’s perspective, you will not know what to do with those things.

And those things, which are superficial, listen now, will eventually turn on you and destroy you.

Remember what Jesus said about the enemy? He wants to steal life from you. So I’m convinced that Satan will use the “things of this world” to tempt us and pull us away from having an outlook like God.

Think about some common names in history right now.

Miley Cirus, Drew Barrymore, Going back a bit…Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Justin Beiber, Johnny Manziel....you can probably place a lot of other influencer names in there now....Jake Paul and others.

What do all these people have in common?

Almost all those people were as very young men or women suddenly given all the goods of the world.

I mean the list goes on and on.

What do they have in common?

They were all given the best things of the world, but they didn’t see the world from the standpoint of God.

I think it is safe to assume that some of them didn’t have this wisdom of heart, that Solomon asked for…to distinguish good from evil.

And therefore all those things they accumulated tended to turn on them.

Now, those are relatively contemporary kind of pop stars.

Go back a ways to your old myths and many of you will remember the mythological story of of King Midas.

“I want gold, Lord. Let everything I touch turn to gold.”

And so it did. Until when he had to touch the people he loved and they turned into lifeless gold in front of him.

A very neat story…a picture of what we see often in the world today. Power, wealth, influence...

If you get all the goods of the world but without a discerning, wise heart,

not only won’t they do you any good, they will turn on you.

They will turn on you and destroy you.

Solomon asks for the right thing.

1 Kings 3:11–12 NIV

11 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, 12 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.

Here’s an important truth from the Bible.

God will not refuse this kind of prayer. This is a principle…and we see it kind of lived out here.

So how many of us …people in the world, bought a lottery ticket last week and asked....

“Lord, grant me the winning numbers so I can win the 1.55 billion dollars.

In Jesus name I pray.”

Well, that’s a stupid prayer.

It doesn’t make any sense to ask this in Jesus’ name does it?

But Lord, give me a wise heart.

Lord, help me to see the world as you do.

I ask it in Jesus’ name.

You can see the difference…you can feel, sense the heart difference just in the words I just said can’t you.

That’s a good prayer,

and he won’t refuse that one.

In Luke 11:33

Luke 11:13 CSB

13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Jesus wants us to have the Spirit to help us discern wisely. To know good from evil. Not just what’s better in life…to truly know good and evil.

I searched on the internet “ways to have a good life.”

I got a flood of things or sites to look at...

10 tips

100 ways

13 suggestions

5 habits

All ways to have a good life....and that was just the tip of the iceburg.

Today you’ll hear about ways to live. Here’s the best ways to have relationships…here’s how to not be offensive…a recent term you may have heard recently is to live w.o.k.e.

Here’s the way to vote…and talk, and here’s the way you should see others, and here’s what you should post and not to post on sm. etc.etc etc etc.....on and on...

If we have the Holy Spirit with us…If we’ve given our lives to Jesus and we’ve asked Him to forgive (repentance) us, be with us, change us, save us....then part of living life , a full life here on this planet, will be to make the best life-giving decisions each and everyday.

Does it make sense that the best way to live…would be through the Holy Spirit?

Our request to God? Help us discern, daily, good from evil.

Thomas Aquinas said this,

“Non nisi te, Domine.” I’ll have nothing. but you, Lord. He asked for a wise and discerning heart.

He asked that Christ might live within him.

So here’s the spiritual challenge for the week....to gain more of that full life that Jesus wants to give...

Picture yourself as Solomon.

And the Lord says to you, “Okay, what do you want?

I’ll give it to you.

I promise I’ll give it to you.

What do you want?”

What would you ask for?

Ask for Christ.

“Lord, I want you.

I want a wise and discerning heart,

so that now I will know what to do

with anything that I might have or not have.”

So if I’ve got a wise and discerning heart, well then I’ll know what to do with the wealth that I have if I get that wealth.

If I’ve got a wise and discerning heart, I’ll know what to do with power if it comes to me.

If I’ve got a wise and discerning heart, I’ll know what to do when people honor me.

With whatever happens to me, I’ll know what do to for God’s purposes.

I want to ask this because I know there’s an enemy who wants me to see the world …without Christ. Without His will. Where my will…or other people’s wills are higher than yours.

Matthew records some parables about this type of search for life. And it happens to be when Jesus is talking about when people figure out what the Kingdom is...

Jesus says,

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.”

And when someone finds it, they’ll sell everything

they’ve got and buy that.

The kingdom of God is like that.

If you find that hidden treasure, sell everything else you’ve got and buy it.

What’s the hidden treasure? A wise and discerning heart.

What’s the hidden treasure?

It’s Christ dwelling in you. “Non nisi te, Domine.”

I’ll have nothing except you, Lord.

That’s the hidden treasure.

Once you find that, forget everything else in your life.

You can sell it. Sell all of it to buy that one thing, because without that one thing, you’re lost.

Ask God…please give me that full. And I know that full life will come through the Spirit that you can give me.

I do know however, that I will continue to make decisions in my daily life…so God...

…give me a wise and discerning heart. Give me your Spirit so all I do, no matter what comes into my life whether great or tough…that all glory goes to you.

By me humbly living before you…I know I’ll live the best possible life ever. Because I trust you with my life.