I Kings 3:12
Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart;
A Heart Like That…
That’s my desire. To be able to look at a situation and discern God’s desire. Too often (way too often!) I am self-centered and so Shari focused that I fail to see what it is around me that God could bless and use for His glory. Solomon was so humbled that God had used his family, that he was second generation to the throne, the son of the mighty David, and possibly, (and I really hadn’t caught this until now) a little insecure! Wow! Maybe Solomon and I have something in common after all.
Solomon had surely seen the wins and losses of his father. He knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to follow in the footsteps of a man so loved by his people and favored by the Lord. I have to wonder what an evening might have been like in the home of King David, where the conversations may have gone… I wonder if Solomon had watched or perhaps knelt beside his dad and listened as he prayed those prayers that caused God to say “he was a man after My own heart.” I wonder if he had watched his father embrace a selfish desire only to weep in earnest repentance later. His parents’ affair had caused him to have an older brother he would not know until Heaven, he’d seen and heard of God’s judgment first hand. No wonder as he prepared his heart to sit on the throne his desire was to be able discern right from wrong, he’d certainly seen his father’s struggle with it!
A heart like that… what would it look like on any given day? It’s not always easy. Sometimes it requires going against the status quo or stepping outside your comfort zone. Solomon’s first decision after this was to determine the truth between two harlot women on the matter of who’s child had died and who’s had lived. And how did he decide? The same way God does, he tested their hearts. He knew the true mother would never allow harm to come to her child.
Today, God may test your heart. Will you pass? When it comes to making a decision will you decide with godly wisdom or selfish desire? Owch… stepped on my own toe there. I have to wonder, and pray that I am a child after God’s own heart…