THE WISDOM TO ASK FOR WISDOM

By Gabriel Dinda

If you were given a blank sheet of paper today and asked to write your life’s desire(s) on it,what would you write? Probably, you would ask for wealth, fame, a wife or husband and long life or all of these. When God gave Solomon this opportunity by asking,

“… What would you like me to give you?”

He said, “ …give me the wisdom I need to rule your people with justice and to know the difference between good and evil…”

God answered, “…Because you have asked for the wisdom to rule justly, instead of long life for yourself or riches or the death of your enemies, I will do what you have asked…I will also give you what you have not asked for: All your life you will have wealth and honor more than that of any other King…” [1Kings 3:1-15]

What would I have written in the blank cheque, if God gave me the same chance? My choice would have definitely been temporal and flawed.

The world with all its noise has made us have echoes in our minds of the things we would wish to have which are  packaged to appear urgent and totally necessary to us. These things are in many cases temporal and short-lived.

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I therefore make the conclusion that it takes something that comes from God for someone to know what they really need amidst all the things that appear to them as genuine needs. It takes the mercy of God to give you an appropriate response for the question that He asks you. And this is what I call, ‘the wisdom to ask for wisdom’; a predisposition that one has to incline towards things of absolute value to humanity and not blinded by all those that glitter.

 Doesn’t this happen in our world all the time? When we cloud the ears of God with temporal things which in themselves only increase in us the desire for other things? We never think about the things we REALLY need because of our short-sightedness(which we hardly notice), we end up asking for things that later harm us. We ask for things that in themselves desire more from us than  fulfil us.  We only use our emotions to ask for things we think we lack and things that don’t  seem to satiate our desires. Our world, however, has no vocabulary and humility to ask for what we really need. We just want what we want, even if it will be harmful to us.

This obsession with temporal things baffles me. And it is the manner in which they are stuck in our minds as the ideal things that scares me. We hardly think of the foundation which would then set stage for the temporal things or even a better use of the temporal things. Perhaps, it would be key to us to ask God for the wisdom to ask for the right things. Since in what we ask, lies what we get(and even more), as Jesus  promised. But no one has taught us about what to ask and why. Therefore, we extend our desires(mostly bodily) and make them a priority. Eventually, we realize that we squandered a chance to ask for that which really matters.

Where would we get the wisdom to ask for wisdom if we don’t have constant communication with God, recognizing our wretchedness and inclination to make wrong choices?

This is an invitation to have another look at the predisposition of the things we really need and those that we ask for. And in asking for what pleases God, He will add unto us all the other temporal things we didn’t ask for.

The wisdom to ask for wisdom, I say!

Read more before you go: Say thank you more