What Do You Want?

2 Chronicles 1:10

“Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours”

Here we have the great Solomon at the very beginning of his kingship over Israel.  One might be asking “now how does a king from the Old Testament have anything to do with today’s politics?”  I might be stepping on some toes here but Solomon answers the Lord here with an answer worthy of repeating. 

Many times when we are in a position of power we let this place of power cloud our Godly judgement and it turns into a selfish grab of power or possessions.  A couple of things Solomon does here are key for us to understand our place. 

1.  He recognized that people belong to the Lord and not to him as king.  Jesus said to Pilate when He was on trial ” No power has been given you but that which came from my Father.”   God owns it all people, and the people in power are put there by the Lord himself. 

2.  He recognized wisdom and knowledge were the only things he needed to lead.  We see this power struggle play out in our daily lives and in every country across the globe.  Wisdom and knowledge from God is all we need to lead effectively.  So do not play into the lie of following worldly leaders in order to achieve power and lead effectively.  All you need is wisdom from God (read the Bible) and knowledge of God (pray).  These two things should be the engine of our decisions, not greed, knee jerk reactions, or anger. 

God has it all under control and He does not need your wisdom to fix it. Starting today, take a back seat and put wisdom and knowledge from God in the driver’s seat instead of your passions.  Be humble enough to listen to the Holy Spirit, learn to keep quiet, and move when the Lord tells you to. 

Remember Solomon wrote in Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Who are your counselors and what are they teaching you? And all those people who seem to get lead astray into emotionally based leadership of the world, remember Christ died for them also.

All Solomon wanted was wisdom and knowledge to govern the people of Israel. If the Lord has put you in a position of leadership you must pay attention to the what Solomon asked for. It may be time to adjust your leadership stragety.