Your One Wish

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I were playing the game ‘What would I do if I won the lottery?’ We spoke about holidays, houses, presents, donations…

1 Kings 3.1-15

Reference:  v.5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (NIV Bible)

Explore:  A couple of weeks ago some friends and I were playing the game ‘What would I do if I won the lottery?’  This is always a fictitious game for me because I doubt that I’ll ever buy a lottery ticket, but that doesn’t stop me dreaming of having all that money in my possession. We spoke about holidays, houses, presents, donations… the list was quite considerable for everyone.  When it came to allocating our imaginary $57 million we were all really quite generous towards family, friends, churches and mission organisation.  However we realised fairly quickly that that amount of money may change our lives but it would not change the world.
In our passage today we hear of Solomon’s dream where God grants him ‘one wish’.  God certainly isn’t your typical genie (they usually grant three wishes to begin with!) but it is a generous offer and one that Solomon takes very seriously.

Application:  It does open up the question though: what would you ask for?  If God told you to ask for whatever you wanted and he would give it to you, what would you ask for?  It seems that Solomon was wise before he even asked for wisdom, and so he asked for ‘a discerning heart’.  When a beauty queen is asked the same question the standard response is ‘world peace’.  Aladdin uses his 3 genie wishes to become a prince, to be rescued from dying and then for the genie’s freedom.  We could all wish and wonder what we would do if granted this great gift, and yet I think we undervalue what God has already given us.  God promises to always be there for us, he promises to always forgive us, he has given us gifts and abilities to live a life that is Christ-like and we know that we have the King of the Universe beside us at each step.  That is a lot of gifts right there.  He may not have granted us a ‘wish’ however he has given us the freedom to decide what we should do with those gifts.  We should not feel despondent just because we don’t have that ‘one wish’.  We should feel empowered that the Ruler of Heaven and Earth has given us many talents already, it’s just up to us to put them into practice.
Solomon asked for wisdom and he received it.  However, he still had to put it into practice.  We are all holding Godly gifts.  The question is: what are you doing with them?

Prayer:  Lord, you are so generous and give to us abundantly.  With the freedom you have allocated to us comes great responsibility for us to use those gifts to honor you.  May we continue to discern how to live more for you each day.  Amen.

I have to ask, what would your one wish be?

1 Kings