Whatever You Want

1 Kings 3:1-5



3:5 God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

C.L. Lewis once wrote, “God’s complaint is that we want too little, not too much. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

3:5 Scripture is telling us to let your prayers be big. As big as the great and wise God we worship.

The way we respond to an unlimited offer says allot about who we are inside. God says, “You can have anything you want, go ahead and ask, and it shall be yours”, and He adds implicitly, “and what you ask for will reveal you.” Is that why Jesus said, “You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14)? The sky is the limit, if you ask in His name. We have to keep in mind though that what we ask for will reveal what we know about His name. How harmonious is our heart with the heart of God? Our desires say allot about us.

Solomon’s response could have not been better. Recently being established as Israel’s king he asked for a discerning heart to govern the people. When he asked God for wisdom he got all the other things he might have asked for as well. If he only asked for a good thing, he would have gotten the good thing and nothing more. Asking for the best got him the best and the good as well. It is like seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, when we do, “all these things will be added unto you as well”. (Matthew 6:33)

Good things are the red herrings of life. In mystery novels, red herrings are false clues meant to lead the detective down the wrong path. They get their name from the practice of criminals in the 19th century. They dragged smoke herring down a path to mislead police bloodhounds. The enemy of God’s best is not the worst, but the less than the best, the good things.

My prayer: Father God, teach me to know you and cause me to so love you that I ask for precisely what you want me to ask for. In Jesus’ name I pray this day, Amen.