“So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord as David his father had done.”
– 1 Kings 11:6
1 Kings 11:6, what a phrase. So Solomon did what was evil on the side of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord. Like, with his whole heart he didn’t follow the Lord. And we know that’s what this is talking about, his heart. Because earlier in 1 Kings 11:3 after Solomon went after many women and wives and concubines, the Bible says his wives turned away his heart. So, could we just pause today and ask the question, what in our lives is turning our hearts away from God? In what ways are our hearts not wholly given over to God?
God, we pray that you would help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
This is the first and greatest commandment. Jesus tells us, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. So where is your heart lacking in love for God? Where can you and I grow in love for God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our mind and all our strength? Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, for his wives had turned away his heart.
God, we pray that you would help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We want to love you with everything we have. We want to wholly follow you, Lord. So help us, God, help us to see any and everything in our lives, in this world, that’s turning away our hearts from you, that we’re focused on before you, above you, that our allegiance is toward instead of you. God, we want you to be supreme in our allegiance. We want you to be supreme in our affections, for you alone or worthy of supreme affections.
And we know, Jesus. You told us, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves brother or sister more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves his own life more than me is not worth of me, because you alone are worthy of our lives. You are worthy of all our love. You are supremely good. You are supremely gracious. You are supremely great. And all other loves in our lives we want to pale in comparison to love for you.
1 Kings 11:6 Reminds Us to Have Our Hearts Turned Toward God
Even in light of Luke 14, if anyone does not hate his father or mother, brother, sister, wife, and children. We know you call us to love our parents and siblings and spouses and children. But God, we see in your word that you’ve called us to a love for you that makes any other love in this world look like hate in comparison. So God, we pray that you would teach us to love you like this. Teach us to enjoy your love for us like this so that our hearts may be fully turned toward you. And then we might wholly follow you.
God, help us today to live with love for you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Even as we praise you for your love for us, we love like this because you first loved us. We pray in an Ephesians 3 kind of way for every single person listening right now. That they would know the height and depth and breadth and width of your love for them in Christ Jesus, and that flowing from this, you would help them and me. God, help us to love you with everything we have and to wholly follow you as the overflow of hearts in love with you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
