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?

2 Samuel 7:18-22

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and prayed, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And now, Sovereign Lord, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign Lord? 20 “What more can I say to you? You know what your servant is really like, Sovereign Lord. 21 Because of your promise and according to your will, you have done all these great things and have made them known to your servant. 22 “How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you.

There’s something about our culture that makes it very hard for us to be still for any length of time. We have lost the art of solitude and there is very little time for contemplation, we have become too busy. I’m sure King David was a busy man, he had a whole kingdom to run, and yet he took time to regularly sit and be still in God’s presence. When you read the scores of Psalms that David wrote, Psalms of worship and prayer, you gain a glimpse into his relationship with God. Out of these still moments come Psalms that are rich and weighty, flavored with a touch of eternal reality.

In 2 Samuel 7 David receives the most amazing revelation of God’s Word through the prophet Nathan. David had wanted to build a temple, a house for God, but instead God said, “No, David, I’m going to build YOU a house”. When David hears from Nathan that God wanted to establish his throne forever his immediate reaction is to go and sit before the Lord. It’s not about where and when we come and sit before the Lord, we can kneel at church, in our homes, during times of difficulty and troubled. David sat before the Lord under the stars while shepherding sheep, in rocks and caves while fleeing for his life, and in the courts of the Tabernacle. The times and places changed but not the One whom he came before. God never changes, His presence remains the same, He’s waiting for us to just sit before Him.

It’s not where and when we come to the Lord but how, David sat before the Lord with:

• A HUMBLE HEART

The very first words David utters as he sits before the Lord (v18)  “WHO AM I” Many people, hearing of God’s promises of greatness for them, would become proud and loud. David knew who he was and he also knew that God knew who he was (v20) “You know what your servant is really like” Could it be that we are just too proud to sit still before God because we have an over inflated view of our own importance? It’s not enough just to know yourself and to know that God knows who you are, you have to know who He is. David was the king yet he knew who his king was. Have we become arrogant in our bloated view of ourselves, have we forgotten who we are sitting before?

• WORSHIPFUL HEART

One of the things I notice about David’s prayer is that his prayer is all about God; God is the center, the target of his prayer. For David it was God and His GLORY that mattered, God was not a means to an end, rather God is the glorious end of everything. How many times do we unwittingly reduce God to be merely our means to an end? This has been man’s tendency right through history, He is the One we turn to in trouble and His sovereignty becomes the convenient excuse for every shortcoming.

David has just received God’s gracious word of promise, that God is going to lavish His blessing on David making David’s name glorious. Where is David, what is he doing? Sitting humbly in God’s presence GIVING ALL THE GLORY BACK, giving the glory to the One who is the only rightful recipient of it. Where are the worshippers, those who GIVE ALL THE GLORY BACK? Those who will pour themselves out in adoration of God? Where are you, what are you doing?

• SUBMISSIVE HEART

Whatever GOD wills to do, David submits to it. (v25) “And now, O Lord God, I am your servant” here is the moment of laying down his own plans. David had a great vision of building a glorious temple for the Lord, what a vision, what a noble endeavor, a king whose heart is devoted to the Lord. Even Nathan had agreed and said (v 3) “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” Who could argue with such a plan? BUT it wasn’t God’s purpose, it wasn’t His time. The desire is good, but that in itself is not enough because God desires OBEDIENCE not just great ideas.

The subject of much of his short prayer is the sovereignty of God, and he uses the word sovereign 7 times. Why use that word so much and what is the “sovereignty of God”? To call God “sovereign” means that God has the right to do as He wishes; it means that God does in fact know what is best for us. When David hears the Word of the Lord, as SOON as he hears it, there is not argument, no attempt to somehow reason with or persuade God (like we so often do). He simply goes in and sits before the Lord and says in essence, “Not my will be done but YOURS”

Is there anything stopping you from being completely submissive? Could it be that the one thing stopping you from being completely submissive to God is the laying down of your own agenda, your plan, your vision, your dream so you can find His PURPOSE. Maybe the great plans you have seem so right, so noble.  I’m sure they are good, but GOOD plans are not the point, they must be GOD’S plans.

Prayer is about sitting with God and dealing with our pride, repenting of it and developing a HUMBLE heart. It’s about putting Him first, coming to adore Him with a WORSHIPFUL heart and putting ourselves in the right perspective. It’s about lay down your agenda, your plan and coming with a SUBMISSIVE heart to wait on God and let Him show you HIS better purpose. Prayer changes us, remember, He is the one that is unchanging!