When you pray for something, what is your motivation?  To be honest, many of my prayer requests have to do with me or my family.  I’m sure I try to spiritualize it somehow, but at the core they can be pretty self-serving.

It made me wonder what types of prayer get God’s attention?  

I stumbled onto something when I read one of the prayers of King Solomon.

When Solomon succeeded his father David as king of Israel, he was young and  very inexperienced.  Scholars say he was somewhere between 20 and 30 years old.  

But Solomon did not shy away from what he knew he had to do.  But he also knew that he couldn’t do it without God.  He gathers together the leaders of Israel, the generals and captains of the army, the judges, the political and clan leaders.  He leads the entire assembly in worship in front of the tabernacle and prepares a sacrifice for the Lord.  And that night in a dream, God gives Solomon the opportunity to ask him for whatever he wants.  

While most of us would ask for something that might make our lives easier.  Solomon did not.

Solomon’s response is that of gracious humility.  He honors God by telling of His faithfulness to his father David and asks him to keep the promise He made to David.   And then he asks for wisdom and knowledge….to lead the people of God.  

Solomon had the God of the universe granting him one wish and his request is not for himself.  

He asks for wisdom to lead God’s people.  

And the scripture says that God was so pleased with his request that he granted it.  But not just wisdom and knowledge.  But also wealth, riches, and fame like no other king before him and no other king after him.

I would like to challenge you and I to focus our prayers on taking care of the things that are important to God and not just the things that are important to me.

In doing so we just might find ourselves seeing many answered prayers and also tapping into the the purpose for which God has put us on this earth to accomplish.  

~ Vijoy