Be Careful What You Wish For

John 15:7: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.“Ask whatever I wish.”

God gave this same choice to Solomon and he chose wisdom. We read in Ecclesiastics that everything else Solomon tried — things we may want or have wished for — turned out to be meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 12:8: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: Now all has been heard;

here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

for this is the duty of all mankind.

So what do we wish for?

We so much want to wish for the things Solomon had: money, power, pleasure, folly, wisdom and toys. Can you feel the excitement welling up inside as your imagination kicks in and you can begin envisioning yourself with these things? The new car, the freedom of money and the luxury it brings, the ability to exercise power here and there, not having to strive for anything.

We want to think Solomon got it wrong. (He is a bummer to bring to your party.)

“Fear God and obey his commands.” What type of gift is that to want? Want will this do for me?

First, let’s look at the gift of fearing God. What does that look like?

Fearing God is to acknowledge his supreme being, his majesty, his power, his being Lord and creator of all, his ability to be anything, do anything, create anything, his rule over all that is made in the universe, his ability to know all.

When you see God for who he is, you can't but humble yourself in a healthy, honoring fear of the presence of him as you see yourself in relation.It's an awestruck fear.

You start seeing that all of life here on earth is tied to him, and that all the things you wish for come from him. You ask yourself, “If Solomon comes to the conclusion that all we want for is meaningless, then what is left that could ever have meaning?”

You fear then, as you sense the emptiness, the loneliness and despair.You can choose to say, “Well, Solomon may be right but who cares? I'm going for it anyway and I will make my decision if for the things I want are meaningless.” Most of us go down this path.

Yet how many times do we read stories of people who have accumulated many of the things Solomon had, and hear them with they’d spent more time loving their kids, their spouse, their neighbors? They had found that their wealth and power and folly brought them to an unsatisfying end. If God is the only answer, then you fear losing that as well.

The second part is to obey God’s commands. What are his commands? We have the Ten Commandments that tells us to put God first and to honor other people, we have Jesus saying the most important command is to love your neighbor as yourself, we see it said that without love, everything else we do or say means nothing.

He asks us to seek him and his kingdom first, then all these things (like Solomon's things) will be given to you.The catch is that when we seek his kingdom first, the want for all these things, the purpose for all these things, will change.

Wealth still abounds, and so do pleasure, power, passion, wisdom and toys. But they all now have a different meaning, measurement and purpose attached to them.

They are now used to glorify God — not pacify us.

When this change of heart happens, we can never use up all the blessings God will give us.

Obeying God’s commands and fearing God is not a punishment — it’s an opportunity to break the barrier of meaninglessness and experience the fullness behind a life that is now meaningful.

Just a thought …

#justathought