Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
– 1 Kings 3:12
That is an amazing verse. This is God speaking to Solomon in response to a prayer of Solomon for wisdom, for discernment. And I just want to camp out on two things here that will lead us to pray.
1 Kings 3:12 pictures God’s delight in giving wisdom.
First, God says, “Behold, I now do according to your word”. Just let that soak in. God says to Solomon, who just prayed to him, “I will do what you have asked”. Just think about that, that God would respond to your prayers or my prayers this way, that he would do according to what we ask. Oh, pray with confidence, especially as the whole point of this podcast is we pray according to God’s Word.
We can know God will give us what we ask when we pray specifically according to his Word, which leads to the next part. God says, I will give you a wise and discerning mind. This is something that God wanted to give to Solomon. Solomon asked for it, and God says, “Yes, I will give that to you”.
And this isn’t just Solomon’s story. This is the promise that we read in James. For every follower of Jesus, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault. And when he asks, he must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man is a double-minded in man, unstable in all that he does”. The promise in James 1 is that when you and I ask for wisdom for discernment, God will give it to us. God will do according to not just his Word. God will do according to our word when we ask for wisdom.
1 Kings 3:12 teaches that God gives wisdom generously when we ask.
So I just want you to think about your life today and what areas, facets of your life, relationships, decisions… In what ways in your life do you need wisdom today? And I want to encourage you as we pray right now to ask for it and believe. Don’t doubt. Trust that God will give you the wisdom you need. What a promise in prayer.
So yes, God, we pray right now just as Solomon prayed in 1 Kings 3 in an even greater way because we are praying through the finished work, Jesus on the cross for us that had made the way open for us to come directly into your presence by his blood to ask you, oh God, for wisdom. We praise you as the all-wise God. All wisdom belongs to you.
You are infinitely wise, and you have told us that you’ll give wisdom generously to us when we ask. So we ask according to your Word with confidence in your Word, God, that you would give each of us wisdom in every way. We need wisdom today. We pray for discernment to know what is good and right and pleasing to you, good for us, good for others, and glorifying to your name.
This verse teaches that true wisdom comes from God.
God, we pray for wisdom that comes from your Spirit, not the wisdom of this world. God, we pray that you would deliver us from the wisdom of this world as James 3 talks about. And grant us today and all day long in different decisions we make and different interactions we have and everything we think and desire and do, please, oh God, give us wisdom. And I just pray particularly over people who are walking through a variety of different challenges. God, that you would faithfully, generously pour out your wisdom today on them.
And we trust you will do according to our words. Oh God, we praise you for your promises to us, your Word to us. God, we pray for people who don’t know you like this, who’ve never heard the good news of access before you, the all wise God for everything they need, all the wisdom they need for life.
Prayer for the Bajau People
God, we pray for the Bajau people of Indonesia, this nomadic people group of 350,000 in Sulawesi and Sumatra and different islands in Indonesia, coastal areas. Lord, we pray for the Bajau people to be reached with the good news of your love for them, your generosity, your grace, your gospel that opens the door to relationship with you, the all-wise God, to walk with you. God, we pray that over the Bajau people of Indonesia, even as we pray that you’d help us to walk in your wisdom today.
Save us from ourselves, save us from foolishness all day long, and help us to be wise and discerning in everything we do. We pray this according to your Word, in 1 Kings 3:12. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
