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Isn’t it amazing how easily children innocently believe the things they are told? They ask questions constantly, seeking to learn what is true, and they believe what they are told—at least until years of interacting with sinners in a fallen world cause them to doubt and question even what they are told. Like Adam and Eve’s sudden awareness of sin upon eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we all reach an age at which faith is less natural and life loses some of its luster.
I consider it an incredible privilege that the Lord began to teach me His truths and impress His goodness on me at an early age—an age at which I simply accepted these things as truth and did not question them. I remember one night when I was around 7 or 8 years old, when I learned about the existence of a mystical power called wisdom, and of God’s incredibly graciousness in offering it to each one of us.
For our family devotion time this night, my dad read to us from First Kings three and four about when Solomon asked for wisdom and God made him the wisest man who ever lived or would live. This intrigued me. First of all, I really liked the sound of “ask of Me whatever you want,” and I had to wonder whether God would have really granted Solomon anything, or if it was only because he asked for wisdom. But the unmatched wisdom with which the Bible said Solomon was granted peaked my interest as well. As much as I tried, I couldn’t wrap my brain around the concept of a wisdom that could truly be greater than any wisdom of anyone who would ever live.
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. ~ 1Kings 3:5-12
Chapter three’s example of Solomon’s wise ruling in the case of the two women and the baby was sufficient proof in my mind, however, that Solomon did indeed possess great the greatest wisdom as God said He had granted to him. And of course, I had always been taught that if the Bible said it, then it was true. I had never had cause to doubt that.
When my father had finished explaining to my younger sister and I the occurrences of these chapters in 1 Kings, he went on to say that we too could ask God for wisdom, and that if we really did want it, He would give it to us (granted, it would not be as great a wisdom as Solomon possessed). In fact, he said, God wanted us to ask Him for wisdom. So when our devotional time was over, I found myself a quiet spot in the living room by the fireplace and with as much reverence as my eight years had taught me how to convey, and I asked God to give me wisdom.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ~ James 1:5-7
Do you remember a time as a child when you believed in things more readily? What would you ask God for if He asked you want you desire?
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