Get Wisdom

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 1 Kings 3:9-10

If God stood before you or appeared to you in a dream as He did Solomon, and said you can have anything you asked for, would you ask for this (wisdom) as Solomon did?

God never ceases to amaze me! After I had read this passage this morning, I then opened to two different devotionals to find exactly what I was supposed to. To confirm to me that the same thing that Solomon had asked for, is also the most important thing that we could and should ask for and seek. The devotions aligned perfectly with the passage. We are told in James, to ask for wisdom, because God gives it to us in abundance and without fault finding. We should seek it above everything else that we could seek! It’ll be life for us.

Solomon sought an understanding mind and a hearing heart, to be able to judge the people rightly that he had been made king to rule over. He wanted to be able to discern and know the difference between good and bad or evil, so that He would not misjudge! That was his main concern and he knew that without wisdom that came directly from God, he could not do it on his own. But get this, he ‘could have’ asked for anything else in this world, and WISDOM he sought!!!! We are told to as well.

Proverbs 4

5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Get wisdom!!! Ask for it! Seek it! Follow it!

I want to add a few excerpts from the commentary that I read in my Bible this morning:

“What we seek after in life reveals so much about our character. Too many of us seek the wrong things, and, as a result, we are never satisfied and fulfilled. If we will seek God as our number one necessity in life and ask for understanding of His ways, we will be content and God will add other things, as He did for Solomon. ~ Joyce Meyers

It pleased God for Solomon to ask for this and it pleases Him for us to seek and ask the same.

Today's devotional from “The Pocket Bible Devotional for Women” was labeled “The High Price of Materialism.” Isn’t there a high price to pay for the wrong things that we seek??? Wisdom is valuable and it’s priceless!

We are told to keep our lives free from the LOVE OF money! And to be content with what we have for God will never leave us or forsake us. We have all we need with and in Him. Money isn’t evil, the lust of it is! Wanting more isn’t bad but how will God give us more if we don’t appreciate what we do have?Godliness with contentment is a great gain! We brought nothing with us into this world and we can take nothing back. It’s better to have little, with the fear of the Lord, than to have much and inner turmoil! This is scriptural!

Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also! That’s why we’re told to guard our hearts above everything else!!! And we must prioritize and make God priority. Solomon was asking for an understanding heart to gain Godly wisdom. Not to be worldly, for worldly wisdom isn’t wisdom at all and it always brings us great pain. Wanna know where your heart is? Just look around. What do you seek? What is your greatest desire? What’s most important to you deep down? Get real and get honest with yourself. Look deep and you’ll find the answer within.

We can repent and seek to please Him.

He said to them, “TAKE HEED AND BEWARE of covetousness, for one’s life DOES NOT consist of the abundance of the things he possesses.” Luke 12:15

Covetousness is dangerous and we’re more than the sum of what we have or desire! What really counts is what’s within. God sees and looks at the heart.

“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10

Our works will be tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:13) and God knows why we do what we do and for what gain! The real reason behind everything we do or don’t do, lies within the heart. God knows our intent and our desires. Are they earthly or heavenly? Where are our real priorities ? What is behind it all? What is the root of it all? What do we truly seek?

If we do have not spiritual understanding then we are blind to see the things of God and miss out on what’s most important to Him. This is why Solomons's request pleased Him. All else is secondary. We must seek God. We must seek the truth. The truth is, He is all wise. He is all knowing. He has all the understanding and all the knowledge that there is to be had, and wisdom comes only from Him. So Him, we must seek and to be wise in God’s eyes, not our own. Stuff don’t matter if we don’t have God, and we can have as many plans as we want, but in the end, it’s only His plan that will stand. In order to go God's way and to know what to do, we must seek Him. We can’t get it from any other source apart from Him!

“People’s desire for more and more things is the result of an achievement-driven society. Materialism has a very high price, and I am not talking about the currency that is dependent on the stock markets. I’m talking about the toll stress takes on us. We are overworked, we have too little time to spend on relationships and it affects our health. Materialism is addictive. Once you get caught in its trap, you just have to get more and more to feel satisfied, and then it takes complete control of your life.” ~ Excerpt from today’s pocket devotional

Your things cannot and will not deeply satisfy your souls deepest longings. You cannot buy your way! It’s all just surface stuff with no true meaning if you don’t have God and if He’s not first place. You and I are saved by grace and when we seek first the kingdom of God, He adds everything else that need. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him alone. We must seek to understand and know, in order to do His will.

Then, I turned to “A Book of Rays” by my friend, Candice Lauren. Today's devotion was titled, “The hardest thing to understand is understanding itself”. Mind blown again. God is so good and never ceases to amaze me. I felt the need to arise early this morning and my eyes opened just before my alarm clock went off. But, I got up, turned it off, and went back to sleep for a few. Then, my dog started barking, as I had already felt prompted to arise. She quit as soon as I got up. It’s a reminder that early we must seek Him and the more we seek Him, the more we find.

The word that Candice had written was again, clearly on the same page as the passage that I was brought to on Solomon.

“For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.” Deuteronomy 32:28

She said that “Understanding is one of the hardest concepts to understand. The definition of understanding as we know it is to perceive the intended meaning of (words, language, or speaker.) To interpret or view something in a particular way.”

“God wants us to be understanding, not to understand.” ~ Candice

“The human in us wants to “understand” everything in fine detail, but God wants us to have understanding for one another.” ~ Candice

Solomon sought to have the understanding to know what to do. God granted it. This is why we must not seek within ourselves but to lean into God and not our own understanding. It’ll fail us every time if we do. We must seek to see things from His point of view. We cannot see what He says without Him showing us and this is why we must seek to have understanding. That’s wise. His ways and thoughts aren’t ours, but so much higher. When we seek to align, He reveals things to us that we could not see otherwise. God is more than able to give us the spiritual understanding that we need.

All Solomon could see was things from his own lowly perspective, until God showed him otherwise.

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Ephesians 3:20

He’s working in and through us and it is He that changes our POV. But we must ask and seek!

“ We can pray, do the asking in faith and trust, but it is God who does the work.” ~ Candice And then she goes on to include Proverbs 3:5- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.”

Solomon was leaning into God because clearly he couldn’t go or do this job by his own understanding. He didn’t know how to lead the great people that God entrusted to him. He said so when God came to him in the dream telling him to “ask” what He should give him.

And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 1 Kings 3:7-8

Now he was king and now he didn’t know what to do. Ever been there? Don’t know what to do with your life or understand how to handle the load or task at hand? He was under the rule of his father for his whole life and now he had to take the position of king and to rise to the occasion and to be a man. He wanted to be a man of God and He was asking for God's lead. He was being totally honest and transparent that he couldn’t do it alone and so must we.

Ultimately we are under God's rule and authority and how can we lead unless we are ruled by and follow Him? If God gives a task, He also equips but it’s our job to seek and follow. Solomon didn’t have a clue of how to rule or where to even begin. Scriptures says so: “He didn’t know how to go out (begin!) or how to come in (finish!).” The first step was confession and honesty - that he didn’t know what to do or how to rule. He was but a lad and he recognized that God was God. He was his true Father.

He could only see things from his/ a narrow point of view. Thank God that we can ask and are told to! God is waiting on you to ask and longing to guide you and me into spiritual truth and understanding.

“God, enlighten us please. Help us to see things the way You do. We know not what to do but our eyes are on You.”

I highly recommend that you read Proverbs 2 and take it to heart: The Lord your God wants to guide you into all truth and keep you out of all danger! He knows ultimately what’s best for you. We must seek Him now rather than later…

“For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Proverbs 2:6

Since Solomons request pleased the Lord, the Lord added riches to Solomon, since he had only asked for understanding to recognize what was just and right. He did what Solomon asked and gave him wisdom and a discerning mind so that no one before or after him would be his equal. He was now not only the wisest man in the world and but also the richest too! Riches couldn’t buy him what he needed. Solomon didn’t always use his wisdom, and money didn’t get the best of him or have his heart, but women did. He circled back around eventually to find out what really mattered. He wrote the book of Proverbs (to give us true wisdom- remember he had it all! So listen to his Godly words of wisdom to tell you what’s wise), Ecclesiastes (to tell you what really matters) and The Song of Solomon (a love story that depicts the relationship not only between man and woman and marriage/covenant, but as a sign of love and covenant between us and God!) None of us are perfect, but we all have the chance to seek And find as Solomon did. God knew he’d mess up but he granted him anyway.

We must seek wisdom before anything else but wisdom we must also follow and use, or it profits us nothing. Solomon spent a lot of years wasting the wisdom that he was given but it wasn’t all for naught - because he came back around and realized the vital importance of it and following God. He came to realize that nothing else matters. God first. God of and in and through all. He gives and extends what we need butwe must use what we’ve been given. All to the glory of God. Seek God. Ask for wisdom. Follow through… He will never fail you to guide you.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

What we ask for and seek truly reveals where our hearts and priorities are. May we seek to be spiritually, physically, and mentally aligned with Him so that we may seek to follow Him all the days of our lives.

This one thing I do seek.

Psalm 23 - And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

“God I look to You” lyrics ~

“God I look to You

I won't be overwhelmed

Give me vision to see things like You do

God I look to You

You're where my help comes from

Give me wisdom, You know just what to do”

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:9-10