When King Solomon ascended to the throne, God told him, ‘Ask! What shall I give you?’ (v. 7 NKJV). Imagine: Solomon was given carte blanche by the One in whose dictionary the word impossible doesn’t occur. But there was a catch! God was testing Solomon to find out what was in his heart. An arrogant person would have asked for fame. A worldly person would have asked for wealth. A self-seeking person would have asked for power. What did Solomon ask God for? ‘Now give me wisdom.’ So, God granted Solomon’s request and gave him something more gratifying than fame, more extravagant than wealth, and more thrilling than power. As it turned out, all the material blessings Solomon enjoyed were by-products of the gift of wisdom. An anonymous thinker wrote: ‘Tell me your dreams, and I will tell you the riddle of your life. Tell me your prayers, and I will write the history of your soul. Tell me your askings, and I will tell you your gettings. Tell me what you seek, and I will tell you what you are…I do not wish to know your possessions…only your wants. I do not care to know what you have, only what you have not and desire to have; not your attainments, but what you have not yet attained and follow after; that which comes to you in your victories by day and your dreams by night, the ideal you set before you, the things you approve as excellent, what you seek after and have given your heart to, these are the measure of a man.’ So, pray for wisdom.
