What Is Your Heart Set Upon?

Today's prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, There were times when Your silence was powerful. Other times Your wise questions and Scripture responses spoke volumes. You are the best example of thinking before speaking or acting; being angry without sinning; being kind to your enemies and in so doing, putting them to shame or "heaping coals of fire" upon them. I love Your Word, dear Word who was in the beginning, is now and forever will be. I worship You dear Son of the Blessed. May You be honored through my life. In thankfulness and love I come to You, asking forgiveness. Devotional by David Weiss  --2 Tishrei 5776 Divrei Hayamim Bet (2 Chronicles) 1:10-13 "So now, give me wisdom and knowledge; so that I will be able to lead this people. For who is equal to judging this great people of yours?” G-d said to Shlomo, “Because you set your heart on this — because, instead of asking for riches, wealth, honor, the death of those who hate you, or long life, you asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you would be able to judge my people, over whom I made you king — not only are wisdom and knowledge being given to you, but I will also give you riches, wealth and honor such as no king before you has ever had; and no king after you will have as much.” So Shlomo came away from the high place at Giv‘on, from in front of the tent of meeting, to Yerushalayim; and he ruled over Isra’el." Yesterday (Monday) was New Years Day on the Hebrew calendar. We are now in a new year and the High Holy days have begun. New Years day is called Rosh Hashanah which means "the head of the year." It also begins the days of awe which lead up to Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement which is next Wed. The days of awe are a time to reflect on the past year so that we might know what sins we are repenting of on that day. It is a day of fasting. Messianic Jews see this differently because we know that Yeshua the Messiah died for our sins. But we still observe these Biblical holidays as part of our heritage. Heritage is what Shlomo spoke of to G-d in the verses preceding this section. G-d approached Shlomo in a time of worship and asked him what he wanted from him. Shlomo said that because he was king as a result of G-d's promise to his father David, that he would like wisdom and knowledge to be able to rule. We see that request here in verse 10. G-d's answer is one you have probably seen before. He says that because Shlomo asked for wisdom instead of wealth, riches and honor, that he would give him all of those things. G-d is not a crystal ball which we use to make wishes. He is the giver of all good and perfect gifts. And when we ask things according to his will he often gives us what we ask for or even more. Although it may not look exactly like we thought it would. I cannot fully imagine what it was like for Shlomo to do this. I can be as selfish as the next person. So my effort in prayer is to seek to understand what to ask for. Yeshua gave us understanding of how to pray. He gave us what we often refer to as "The L-rd's Prayer." Some people call it "the our Father" since that is what it starts with.From Matt 6:9-13 "You, therefore, pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven! May your Name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us the food we need today. Forgiveus what we have done wrong, as we too have forgiven those who have wronged us. And do not lead us into hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One. For kingship, power and glory are yours forever.  Amen.’" Yeshua did not say that G-d wouldn't give us other things, he just shows us the right attitude to have in prayer. As believers in the marketplace, our effort is not to find the best job or work at a place that makes us happy. Our job is to pray for wisdom of how to do the job he gave us. It is also to intercede for those around us that they might come to know G-d. Praying that his Kingdom come and his will be done is the attitude we are to have. He may give us a promotion or he may give us wealth and honor or even another job, but those are not our goal. Our goal is to be faithful in the things he has given us. How do you pray at work? What is your goal there? The world tells us much about upward mobility at work and in society.There are hundreds of books, blogs and seminars telling us how to achieve these things. Yet they aren't necessarily what G-d is leading us towards. Yes, he does reward some with those kinds of things but        they are not what we should seek. His wisdom is what we should seek. What good is it for us to achieve those things if we do not have his wisdom to carry them out? Yeshua also said to seek first the Kingdom of G-d and his righteous and then the other things would be added to us. The "other things" he was referring to were food and clothing. The last verse from today says that after this time of worship and                                     asking for wisdom, that Shlomo went back and ruled over Isra'el. That  is the main point of seeking G-d's wisdom and his righteousness and for his Kingdom first. It is for us to rule in this world. Adam was given dominion in the world. It is not about position or wealth or anything other than ruling according to G-d's will. In the book of Revelation, it says that that those who overcome the world's system will reign with Messiah in the millennium. We are not all called to rule or reign in the world's system right now. But what we do each day as we try to live for him is going to be rewarded in a spiritual way. And that is worth all the effort to get it right by walking in his wisdom.