Mensa Otabil - An Understanding Heart
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Day number 22 of our 40 days of power. We’ve done more in the days of prayer and fasting than what is left ahead of us. First Kings chapter 3, verse 9: «Therefore give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?»
Whatever God calls us to do, He gives us the capacity to do it. If we lack what it takes, He gives us what it takes. There’s always going to be a first time when you do something. I was not a pastor until I became a pastor. I was not a father until I became a father. I was not a husband until I became a husband. There’s always going to be a first time you do something, and normally, when you’re going to do something for the first time, you feel inadequate. That’s how Solomon felt. He took over as king of Israel from his father, a very accomplished leader, David, and now the nation is prospering.
Solomon is thrust into leadership, and he looks at the enormity of the problem of leading the nation. He’s overwhelmed and asks the question, «Who is able to judge this great people of yours?» He just looks at the people of Israel and considers them God’s people; they are not his people. They knew him as a kid; now he has grown, he has to lead, and he has to wear his father’s shoes. It’s tough. He prays, «God, I don’t have what it takes; give me what it takes.» Each one of us is sometimes faced with tasks where we don’t have what it takes. You don’t know what it takes to do it, and so you pray and say, «God, give me the capacity.» He prays for two things in this passage. He says, «Lord, give me understanding.»
Solomon is not just asking for understanding at a surface level; he wants depth of understanding. He wants to be able to go deeper, wider, and higher, and properly understand the issues facing the nation because he is going to make decisions all the time, and he wouldn’t be able to tell which decisions are right and which are wrong. Many of you are thrust into situations where you just feel, «I don’t even know what to do.» I am in this position; I have this title, but I don’t have what it takes. If you don’t have what it takes, God can give you what it takes, so pray for the capacity to do your job. Then he prayed for a discerning heart, «that I may discern between right and wrong, between good and evil, between what I must do and what I must not do.»
You know, many times when you are in a job, you don’t really know what to do. When I became a pastor, there were many things I didn’t know how to do. When you’re about to officiate your first wedding, you don’t know how to do it. When you have to dedicate or name a baby, the first time you do it, you don’t know what to do. But when you are faced with something and you don’t know what to do, don’t panic. Do what Solomon did: go to God to increase your capacity, go to God to expand your ability. Learn to take your inadequacy in prayer to the Lord, and Solomon did that because he recognized that he didn’t have it.
You know, many times we are so full of ourselves; we think we can do everything, that we have everything, that we’re the best, and then we go and flop miserably. But when you have a humble attitude and can acknowledge your own weakness, both privately and publicly, and above all before God, He gives you the capacity to do your job, and you will excel in doing your job. You’re going to be the best at it. Today, that’s what we want to focus our prayer on: that God expands our capacity and gives us what we don’t have so we can do what He has called us to do.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, increase my capacity. Help me to grow higher, deeper, and wider in understanding. In Jesus' name, Amen.»