"dear God, Please Give Me..."

I found a website that published letters children addressed to God. As you can imagine, the letters are quite humorous. One girl wrote: “Dear God. Are you really invisible or it that just a trick?” Another child observed: “Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can ever do it.” Another boy prayed: “Dear God, if you give me a genie lamp like Aladdin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.” - Raphael

What do you think about Raphael’s prayer? Can you relate? Do you wish that God would give you whatever you wanted? In our sermon text this morning, God invited a young King Solomon to do just that—to ask for whatever he wanted. Oh boy! What did Solomon pray for? What would you pray for? A billion dollars? Long life? For summer vacation to never end? Today we’re going to learn how to ask God for true riches. Listen to our text.

Our sermon text takes place soon after Solomon, the son of David, was crowned king. He had spent the day sacrificing 1,000 animals on an altar in Gibeon, six miles northwest of Jerusalem. That night when he fell asleep, God came to him in a dream and said: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1 Kings 3:5) God was placing a blank check in front of Solomon who may have only been about 20 years old at this time. Can you imagine someone just two or three years out of high school becoming the next president of the United States? What would he or she know about politics, world affairs, keeping an economy running, and everything else the ruler of a nation would need to know? Solomon himself was feeling overwhelmed at the kingly task ahead of him, so he replied: “Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. …who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9)

Don’t you like Solomon’s humility? He was not afraid to admit that he was not sure how to go about this job of being king. Are we as humble in our undertakings? Do we readily admit to spouse, to parents, to our children that we don’t always know what we’re doing? Or do we push on ahead without any input or advice from others, or turning to God for help?

I also like how Solomon was confident that God would do what was best for him. He began his prayer with these words: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.” (1 Kings 3:6) To paraphrase, Solomon was saying: “Lord, you have kept your promises…like you always do. And so I know that whatever it is that I’m about to ask for, you will give to me in accordance with what is for my good and for the good of others.”

Are we as confident about prayer as Solomon was? Do we believe that God really listens to our prayers, or do we suppose that he lets our prayers go directly to his junk mail folder? Do we think that since God has made up his mind about what he is going to do with us that there is no point in praying?

Today’s text demonstrates well how God delights in listening to our prayers. This truth is illustrated in such a neat way in Revelation 5. There, the Apostle John records a vision of heaven’s throne room. Surrounding God’s throne are the 24 elders—representatives of the Old and New Testament Church. Each one of them was holding a golden bowl of incense, which represented the prayers of believers (Revelation 5:8). Your prayers are fragrant and sweet-smelling to God. He never turns his nose up at your requests. The prayers of believers must also be precious to him because they don’t waft up from recycled yoghurt containers. No, the prayer-containers John saw were made of gold!

So, what did Solomon ask for? Well, you already know the answer, but listen again to Solomon’s words because they so delighted the Lord. “…give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” (1 Kings 3:8-9) Rather than asking for riches or for the death of his enemies or for a long life, Solomon asked for wisdom. Why? So he could be the smartest guy in any room? No! So that he could govern well. In other words, Solomon prayed for a gift that would benefit others.