MONITE ‘EPELELI 13, 2026
1 TU’I 3-5; MA’AKE 10:35-45
If God told you he would grant you one wish, what would you ask for?
Kapau na’e talaatu ‘e he ‘Otua te ne foaki atu ha me’a pe te ke kole, ko e ha ho’o me’a ‘e kole?
We were in a big, flashy toy store. This place was any child's dream. I could see in my granddaughter's eyes that she was dazzled by everything around her. She let go of my hand as we walked down the first aisle. It was stocked to the ceiling with the latest and greatest toys. When she looked up at me, I said words to her that every child wishes to hear: "Pick one thing you want, and I will buy it for you." I had purposely set no limits of size or price. She looked up at me with a big smile on her face and said one single word: "Really?" I said, "Yes, whatever you want, but just one thing." We proceeded to take a rather long journey up and down the aisles of the toy store until I knew its geography by heart. She would stop for a minute and ponder. She would pick up an occasional toy, but she never made the big choice. Finally, she wandered to the back of the store and chose a book. She said, "Toys get boring real quick, but books stay interesting much longer.” I walked away impressed at her little-girl values and wisdom.
If your heavenly Father said to you, "I will give you any one thing you want," what would you ask for? The question itself gets at the war that takes place in all of our hearts, between a life shaped by worship and service of the Creator and one shaped by love of and craving for the creation. As Solomon ascends to the throne, God says to him, "Ask what I shall give you" (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon doesn't ask for the best palace ever, for military power, to be loved by many, or to be fabulously rich. No, he asks for something that has more lasting value than all of those things combined. Solomon asks for the thing that is so valuable that money can't buy it and that is so humanly unnatural that only God can give it. Solomon asks for wisdom: "Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" (1 Kings 3:9). It takes a heart for God in order to resist asking for material things; it takes true humility in order to admit that you're not wise enough to do the thing that God has called you to do; and it takes faith in order to believe that God is the only true source of wisdom you need. The next verse says that Solomon's request pleased the Lord.
My request today is that my Lord would be pleased by what my heart craves. For that to be true, I need his rescuing and empowering grace. I know that grace is mine because long after Solomon's request, these words were written: "[Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Cor. 5:15).
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