In the two weeks that we have been in the year 2020, the Lord had made the prominent point for me to share with you and apply this one simple phrase to my life, dare to ask. It seems that there are many places that try to feed us lies that God does not like to give and we should not ask the Almighty God for anything, after all he is not a genie in the bottle. I do not think that we should look at God as a genie in a bottle. However, we should have an expectation (faith) that God is going to answer. When we ask, seek, and knock God will gives us what he desires out of the abundance of his love and goodness. Of course, this will also be in his timing. There are several scriptures where God speaks about who he is as a giver. God GAVE us his son to die for our sins, what WON’T he give us? (See John 3:16).
So, why does it seem that what we ask sometimes goes unheard? With the help of the Holy Spirit I believe God will reveal this to us by looking at Solomon and by looking in our own hearts.
And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity. You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.
“Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”
Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long lifeor riches for yourself, or the deathof your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life. If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.” 1 Kings 3:6-14 CSB
The first point that Holy Spirit pointed out to me this morning is that our choices effect generations after us. We see that David’s willingness to obey God, righteousness, and integrity led the way for Solomon to take the throne. God not only cares about the here and now but cares about generations to come. I believe that there are times that we ask God for things that do not line up with the plan he has for the redemption of humanity. We do not know the beginning to the end, only he does. It is important for us to trust that if God says no, that his intentions are good and filled with love because HE IS good and does everything out of the abundance of HIS love because HE IS LOVE!
As I traveled with the Holy Spirit through Solomon’s dream, he pointed out that Solomon was not inward focused in what he asked God. Not only this, but he admitted that he was young and inexperienced and asked God for help! Have you heard of the scripture ‘those who humble themselves shall be exalted’? We can see that Solomon cried out to God telling him he has no idea what he was doing and cried out for help. God met him in his weakness with not only what he asked, wisdom, but with exceedingly and abundantly more than what he asked for! When Solomon asked God, the intentions of his heart were to serve others and God’s purposes. He wanted to be a King that God saw as fit and not rely on sheer human experience.
When we boldly come before the throne are we asking God with the right intentions or are we trying to serve ourselves rather than what pleases God? Yes, I know that stung a little because it stung me too. I believe this is a key to our question of why God does not always answer in the way that we had hoped and why some of us are still in the waiting. We are asking with the wrong heart. We are asking out of selfish ambition rather than out of what pleases God.
There are things I believe we ask for that do not come to pass because we ask selfishly but God wants nothing more for us to ask him but with the right heart and it shall come to pass. I do not believe God gives reluctantly and I certainly do not believe that God will give us something that will harm our relationship with him or invade in the priceless plan he has for humanity.
I do not believe God wants us to be afraid to ask but be daring to ask. He wants us to come boldly before the throne. In doing this we should still remember WHO HE IS in comparison to WHO we are as his children. Daddy knows best and we need to trust that HE is good, and he loves us so much that what we want him to say yes to is sometimes flawed and he is protecting us by sometimes saying no or not yet.
Solomon came before God and boldly asked him for help to serve others in the way God saw fit. I believe that because Solomon asked God out of a place of humility, honor, and with the right heart God rewarded Solomon with more than he had ever asked or hoped for. I believe the same can be for us too.
God, we come before you today to thank you for who you are. A God of grace, mercy, and abundant love. We come before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the times we have asked you things out of our selfishness rather than the plans and purposes that you have for us and the world arounds us. We boldly come before the throne today thanking you for you grace that is sufficient in our weakness and your love that binds up our wounds. Holy Spirit we are asking you today to be our perfect help and help us have a heart of humility. We ask you to help us ask, seek, and knock with intentions that honor and please God. We thank you Abba that you are going to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or think. In Jesus Name, Amen.
More Scripture To Chew On:
- James 4:3
- Philippians 2:3
- Luke 11:5-13
- Proverbs 11:2
- Proverbs 18:12
- Proverbs 22:4
In my book “BARRIERS (So, if prayers are so powerful, how come mine don’t get answered?)” I examine the reasons the Bible gives for prayers’ going “unanswered.” I found 14. “Wrong Motives” was definitely one of them.