Ask For The Right Thing

When Solomon became king of Israel, God asked him to make a request. “Ask me for whatever you want,” God said.

Solomon asked for wisdom.

“Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” was Solomon’s response to God (1 Chronicles 1:10 NKJV). 

The last part of the sentence reveals the key to Solomon’s success. “Who is able to govern this great people of yours?” he said.

Solomon was overwhelmed with the magnitude of his job. How was he going to govern the Israelites? The job was way over his head, and he realized it.

There is a saying I have heard often from many great servants of God. “If you can do it, it’s not God.” The meaning of the statement is that God often gives us assignments that are way too big for us. In ourselves, we are not equipped to do them. They are beyond us. They scare us. We don’t have the smarts and the know-how to do them.

A national Christian television personality once offhandedly referred to “These impossible things that God asks us to do.”

Indeed, what God asks us to do is sometimes terrifying. We know we can’t begin to do it, except by His divine enablement. That’s a good place to be because the situation will destroy any pride and self-importance that we may have in the situation.

Solomon’s statement revealed deep humility on his part. He was overwhelmed with the task of governing God’s people and perhaps, a bit terrified. So he asked for God to help him. “Give me wisdom and knowledge.”

God was pleased with his request. The request showed that Solomon’s heart was in the right place. He was humble and his number one concern was the same as God’s concern.

There have been many debates about what is the worst sin. One televangelist said that it is, “unbelief.” Unbelief is a terrible sin, because when we refuse to believe, God cannot do anything in our situation. He can’t do anything with us or for us. Hebrews says that without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).

I have rolled this question around a lot and I tend to think that pride is the worst sin. When a person is proud, what can God do with him or her? Probably nothing, except to let that individual fall flat on his or her face.

Pride was the sin that got Satan thrown out of heaven (Ezekiel 28:12-17), and ultimately derailed the entire human race, because Satan tempted Adam and Adam sinned, ultimately passing the sin nature on to all of us.

Pride is truly a terrible thing. Pride says, “I don’t need God. I can do it myself.” Out of that attitude comes the whole concept of what the Bible calls the “works of the flesh” that is to say the act of doing everything in our own wisdom, according to our corrupt and natural thinking that is centered around “self.”

Romans 8:7 says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be.”

The word “carnal” is not one familiar to our culture. I have never heard anyone in a bar use the word “carnal.” It is not to be confused with “caramel,” which is an incredibly good candy. Webster defines the word “carnal” as “relating to or given to crude bodily pleasures and appetites.”

The other word of interest in this passage is the word “enmity,” which is defined as “the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.”

If one is wrapped up in doing things his own way, according to his own wisdom, in an attitude of “I don’t need God; I can do it myself,” that is pride. If one operates this way, rejecting God, he is operating in pride, and this way of thinking is directly opposed to God. Humility is the opposite. Humility says, “I’m not so smart. God, I really need you. I need to do it your way,”

Solomon’s great success began with an attitude . . . the attitude of humility. Because he was humble, he made the right request of God, the request for wisdom and knowledge. Any self-centered person would have asked for great wealth, because isn’t that what everyone wants . . . money?

Jesus said that the love of money is the root of all evil. He did not say money was evil; He said the love of money is evil. Money will not corrupt a humble person, in fact he will probably use it to further God’s purposes on the earth.

Because Solomon was humble and asked for the right thing,

God gave him great wealth, too.

He was the richest Israeli king that ever lived.

He built cities to contain all of his possessions.

Is pride the worst sin? Perhaps. God cannot do anything with the person who is proud except to let him fall flat on his face. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” James 4:6 says, “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.”

How are we to walk and live in this life? We are to have the same desires as God has for mankind. The great evangelist, Charles Finney, taught that the sole purpose we have on this earth is to lead others to Christ. I believe that according to 1 Timothy 2:1-4, the very heartbeat and essence of God’s nature is that He wants all people everywhere to come to salvation, to be heaven bound.

How many Christians do you meet that hold the salvation of lost people as their sole reason for living? Not many. I have met very few. Christians are consumed with everything from having the latest hair-do, to spending four hours a day on Facebook, but very few are consumed with the heart of God, that is, seeing unbelievers come to salvation in Christ.

That is why Christians don’t get their prayers answered, because they ask for all kinds of thing that are not in line with the heart of God. God doesn’t answer their prayers because it would just feed their corrupt and totally selfish lifestyle.

So, the first thing we should do is search the scriptures and find out what the heart of God is. Then, through prayer, we should ask for things that line up with His desire for us. Lastly, and firstly, we should walk with Him in heartfelt obedience, which is the only condition that brings real fulfillment and happiness in this life.

If we do that, we will be one step ahead in our Christian walk.

Photo taken and designed by Lorraine