2 Chronicles 14:8-12

8 King Asa had an army of 300,000 warriors from the tribe of Judah, armed with large shields and spears. He also had an army of 280,000 warriors from the tribe of Benjamin, armed with small shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained fighting men. 9 Once an Ethiopian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of 1,000,000 men[d] and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mareshah, 10 so Asa deployed his armies for battle in the valley north of Mareshah. 11 Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, “O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!” 12 So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians in the presence of Asa and the army of Judah, and the enemy fled.

Where does the victory come from? Does it come through prayer? When Asa became king the people were worshipping other gods so he challenged the people to turn their hearts back to God. As he prayed and listened to God, others started to turn away from their false gods and began to tear down their altars.  10 years into his rule after the reforms were in place King Zerah brought a vast army toward Judah.  Asa’s army was half the size of Zerah’s army and technologically inferior because Zerah’s had the latest war technology. War chariots, the equivalent of the modern tank, able to provided shielding and mobility for archers, allowing troops to arrive at the front fresh and rested.  This threat tested Asa’s leadership and even though he had a lot of worldly resources at his disposal he trusted in God. Asa was on his face before the Lord crying out “We’re not trusting in our army [our resources] but in you Lord.”

Asa revealed a willingness to hope and trust in God and turning to God’s heart in prayer admits human helplessness. So the Lord struck down Asa’s enemy and they fled in fear, broken and scattered and Asa gathered a great plunder. 25 years later (chapter 16) Asa was again threatened, and he faced a similar situation to what he had faced before. What would you do? This time (2 Chron 16:3) “Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus.” “Let there be a treaty[a] between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

Asa had wealth from God’s blessings in the past and now he tries to use it to work out his problems on his own. The crazy part is that it worked, Asa and Ben-Hadad advanced, Baasha retreated and Asa was able to break the enemy and get even more plunder.  Everybody was happy, well almost everyone: (Chapter 16)

7 At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. 8 Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians[c] and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers?[d] At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. 9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” 10 Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people.

Asa stopped trusting God and turned to leaning on self, he eventually had a foot disease that took his life and even in his last days he did not turn to the Lord for help. The contrast between chapter 14 and 16 is stark:  Ch 14 He trusted in God when everything was on the line.  Ch 16 He trusted only in self and turned away from God. It’s not the start but the finish that counts and it’s easy to start out strong and finish weak. How did the change take place? I wonder if Asa began to take God for granted, maybe he began to think that God was lucky to have him. He stopped praying, and instead leaned on his own ability and resources to solve his problems. I even wonder if he began to congratulate himself for his own success. How is your prayer life today?  Has God answered some of your prayers, so many that you have forgotten him? Have you gotten the girl, or the job, or the home, and now you no longer need God.  Has your passion for prayer slipped away? As you reflect on the experiences of your life, what happened when you were on your knees, what happened when you were not? Faith is about trusting God and prayer is an invitation to step into a deeper reliance on Him and see His power at work. Prayer is always about change, it is one of the vehicles that God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change we will abandon prayer and it will not become a practiced part of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Him.

Leonard Ravenhill said, “Poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, most stricken in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, but few prayers; many singers but few lingerers; lots of pastors but few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, but little passion; many interferers, but few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

So where does the victory come from? Where did it come from for Asa, where are you turning, is it to God in prayer?

1 Kings 3:5-10

5 That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” 6 Solomon replied, “You showed faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued your faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.7 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. 8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! 9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.

If you knew that God would give you anything what one thing would you ask of Him? Solomon had such a choice. After David died he became King over Israel and while he was at a place called Gibeon the Lord appeared to him in a dream during the night. God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you (Verse 5). The God who created heaven and earth, who spoke things into existence, who made things out of nothing, the one whose very breath held the key to life said Solomon could have any request, no conditions.  This is better than any genie in a bottle wish!

Here is what he prayed for: “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”  (Verse 9) Solomon asked for the wisdom to be a good king. The Bible says; “The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.” (Verse 10). Solomon’s answer qualifies this as one of the greatest prayers in the Bible, a prayer worth a deeper look. So let’s slip on Solomon’s sandals and step into his world, to gain a glimpse into his heart. Scripture reveals the turmoil of his heart and life, his questioning even before he made his request. His heart reveals not just what he was thinking and feeling,  but who he was comparing himself to. We all play the comparison game at some point in our lives where we measuring ourselves against someone else.  Often these comparisons only leave us feeling inadequate. Solomon compared himself to:

• His Father – David

David was a powerful warrior, a successful ruler and a loved king, he was a man after God’s own heart and he left some big shoes to fill. Solomon wonders if God is still simply showing kindness to his father David by placing his son on the throne. Here we see not only the comparison with family and fathers but the comparisons of the past. Solomon has not yet felt or taken on the authority of the kingdom in his own right and is living under David’s shadow. Here Solomon looks at the past, at what had been, and when we do that it’s easy to start to question “will I measure up?” We all have fears of inadequacy based on the past; we all have family fears and failures.  Some of us have fathers that leave shoes so big that they make us stumble around like children playing dress up. Others have fathers that the only shoes we saw were the ones they threw at us. The truth is God is not calling us to become like our earthly fathers, He wants to equip us to become like Him, our heavenly father.

• A Child

The comparisons of the past have a way of influencing the present, and because of his comparison with the past, Solomon now in the present feels like a child. When he ascended the throne and became king he was an adult, a grownup, yet he doesn’t feel that way. His statement reveals how he feels; it is an honest and humble admission of his inexperience and misgivings about his maturity to rule. Simply put he doesn’t feel up to the job and comparing can causes us to ask the question “can I do this?” Some of us never “grow up”, we’re just children in big bodies, because we are still so focused on the past. Oh we may be sitting on the throne but we’re just taking up space instead of filling the space God has given us.

• The People

How we feel in the present impacts our leadership in the future and as Solomon focuses on his calling instead of resting his vision on God, it falls on people. He thinks about those he is going to rule over and he feels deeply inadequate and intimidated. These are God’s chosen people, which brings up the third question “who do I think I am that I could possibly …..?”

When Solomon went to bed that night in Gibeon all these issues were no doubt weighing heavily on his mind and had been since he first ascended the throne. Many of us have these same doubts that cause us to question “Will I measure up?” “Can I do this?” “Who do I think I am?” It was that very night that God met him in a dream and God saw in Solomon a heart that was humble, not arrogant about running the whole show. He saw his struggling heart, a man who felt he was not equipped to be king yet but who desperately wanted to be a good ruler like his father David. I believe that while God knew Solomon’s heart, maybe Solomon didn’t, and questions like the one God asked can expose our true self. Solomon became the wisest man that ever lived, but that isn’t all. God told him that because he had asked for wisdom instead of long life, riches or the life of his enemies that he would also give him what he have not asked for. In the end God gave him what he ask for and with it came all that he did not ask for.

So what one thing would you request of God if you knew for sure that it would not be refused, have you been thinking that over? Don’t pretend with God and say something you think sounds good or super spiritual; neither should you assume that you don’t have anything significant enough to ask for because you aren’t a King. This is about the heart, what is really in your heart? The answer to God’s question revealed Solomon’s heart, what does your answer reveal about your heart?

Solomon’s prayer was great because his heart was right, God’s promise for those who have such hearts is: “I dwell in the high and holy place; With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15

Would your petition make it as one of the great prayers of the Bible?