Kingdom Values

Kingdom Values

Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. 1 Kings 3:9

IN ASKING FOR WISDOM, Solomon demonstrated that he already had some wisdom. He took the seeds of what had been given to him and asked for more of it. An unwise request would have sought superficialities above substance—outward things that might be assumed to satisfy a hungry heart rather than an understanding heart. Solomon asked for what he knew to be God’s priorities based on the godly calling he had been given. After all, God had demonstrated that he wanted kings after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), so Solomon essentially asked to become one. He discerned God’s purposes even before he asked for discernment.

When you answer God’s open invitation to ask what you want, pay attention to the persistent, godly desires he has already put within you and perhaps even begun to fulfill. Ask on the basis of those gifts, trusting that they are signs of his ultimate intentions for you. Almost always, he has begun a work in you before ever inviting you to ask for its fulfillment. Your asking is meant to further the purposes he has planted from the start.

That doesn’t mean God is playing games with you—that he only says to “ask whatever you wish” as long as you wish within tight limitations. That’s double-talk, overtly saying one thing while secretly meaning another, and God doesn’t engage in such tricks. No, he really does mean to give you more than you ask for. But he also urges you to embrace Kingdom priorities. As a parent who wants to raise responsible children and give them enjoyable things, he knows which is more important. And he means for our prayers to recognize the same values. He doesn’t want us to place the perks of this world above the treasures of eternity.

Pray noble prayers above all. Don’t be so afraid of the fun and frivolous that you assume he has nothing to do with them. But fit them within the big picture. Pray with an eternal perspective. Pray for what you can give as well as what you can get.

The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.