Do you know the story of Solomon, son of King David? When King David died after reigning for forty years, the throne was passed to his son Solomon because God willed it. Solomon was young and inexperienced and now he was the ruler of a vast number of people. One night, the Lord appeared to King Solomon in a dream and told him that He would grant Solomon anything he desired. Solomon recognized the huge responsibility he had at a young age so he told God he wanted a listening heart to judge people correctly.
God liked this answer and granted Solomon his desire while also granting him other things (riches, glory and long life) that he hadn’t requested. Of course, God reminded Solomon that he, like his father David, had to keep his commands.
This story is really powerful on so many levels but my first thought when I read it was, “what would I have asked for?”
Sure, I could consider something totally worldly for me or my family like health, wealth or happiness. But I knew Solomon’s story, so what I determined I would ask for is that God grant me faith and trust so strong that I echo Mary’s yes in every situation that comes up in life. I’ve always longed to be able to so completely trust that there wasn’t any suffering or problem that could diminish my hope in the Lord. I’ve always desired a faith that was so strong that I was never tempted to fall into despair no matter what difficulty I faced.
To be honest, I’ve always envied people who never lose their joy in times of trial and who always seem at peace no matter what kind of chaos is happening around them. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to consistently sustain the total trust and faith necessary to live life like this.
I continued this exercise in my mind and wondered if God would also grant my other desires as well — the worldly ones that I was too smart to ask for knowing what He did for Solomon. But what if He didn’t.
What if when I answered God that my desire was to receive the gift of total trust and faith, he responded by saying, “I’m so glad you asked for that because your life is going to be full of suffering and I will be able to use you as an example of how I help people endure all things.” Whoa. Um, that’s not exactly what I was hoping to hear, I was expecting a Solomon response, not a Job story. Had I known God’s response in advance, would I have changed my answer? I had to dig deep on this one. Would I forget eternity and seek only earthly comfort? What if I could avoid immeasurable grief, an agonizing ailment or any other worst-case scenario I could imagine. We don’t know what God would have done if Solomon had sought something of this world for his desire, but we know the answer he gave pleased God. I can only assume that had he answered differently, it would have displeased God resulting in separation from Him.
As I continued to let this scenario play out in my imagination, I wondered: Can I still say yes to God if I knew that yes would come at a terrible cost? After all, perfect faith doesn’t make a person devoid of human emotions like grief but instead, faith gives us the strength to endure suffering. So, I took a deep breath and imagined myself saying “Yes, God, I still want perfect faith and trust in you.” Then, I felt God responding, “I already made that available to you — I’m just waiting for you to use it.”
Boom. There it was.
After I recovered from that revelation, I realized that God gives us the gift of faith if we ask for it but we have to use it. We have to consistently, every single time, turn to God with humility recognizing our own shortcomings as Solomon did. We must always first seek to carry out God’s will in our lives like Solomon sought to be a good king for the Lord’s people. I constantly remind myself that seeking heavenly things first is always the right answer, regardless of what may result from that choice in this life.
Before you start printing, “Be Like Solomon” t-shirts, the bible tells us that at the end of Solomon’s life, he turned away from God despite all the Lord had done for him. So he is both a good example and a cautionary tale, but I’ll ponder that later. For now, through the grace of God, I’m slowly getting better at following Solomon’s good example although I still have far to go.
Why not take a few minutes and read 1 Kings 3 and put yourself in Solomon’s place? What one thing would you seek from God? In the process, you never know what the Lord might reveal to you, but you know it will be great and definitely more than you asked for.
Michelle Jones Schroeder is a married, mom of two who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She loves St. Pio of Pietrelcina, 80s music, and her family and friends. Michelle’s the author of The Handy Little Guide Series (Adoration and Confession) for OSV. Follow her on Twitter @miche1br