Picking Up Where We Left Off…
2 Chronicles 1:6-12 (New Living Translation)
6 There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it. 7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” 8 Solomon replied to God, “You showed faithful love to David, my father, and now you have made me king in his place. 9 O Lord God, please continue to keep your promise to David my father, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth! 10 Give me the wisdom and knowledge to lead them properly, for who could possibly govern this great people of yours?” 11 God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people—12 I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”
Our Bishop asked a question on Sunday which caused me to reflect upon events in my life. He asked how many of us, God has supplied for us, helped us pay bills or taken care of us when we had been unemployed and He had made a way. All I could do was lift two hands, and feel the warmth of the flow of tears begin to descend down my face; as I reflected upon my own personal testimony and story. During my life I have trusted God even when people did not do what they were supposed to do, when natural means were exhausted, and God still met my needs and most of all kept me in my right mind. Most of the time it had little to do with me being deserving, but it had everything to do with, His grace and His hands upon my life. Most of the times when I was in a place like this, my primary prayer was not a prayer for rescue, and I just worshipped and honored God. I thanked Him for what He had done and I tried to keep focus on the fact that He was able, far more than I could ever be.
When Solomon went to bring his sacrifices He went up in the spirit of worship. He was not looking to get served; He was looking to enter into service. He went with a humble and contrite heart before the Lord realizing that his placement as King was no small matter, and that He owed it to God to give Him honor for just being there. But in the midst of his worship, God asked what He wanted, what was His desire. Solomon did not ask for anything self-serving, he asked for the wisdom needed to govern God’s people. It is when we go to God in worship that He will meet us there and asks what our need is, sometimes the need does not even have to be stated because we enter in with such a sincere heart that God will answer our hearts cry, and the unspoken moaning and groaning of the spirit. He will not just give us what we need but He will take it to the next level. So often we are looking to God just for a minimal return on our submission and worship and God sees the obedience that lies within us and the desire to do His will and He will give us more than what we need. He will not just meet the need but exceed it. He will pick up where we leave off and take things to a whole other level. One that not only blows our mind, but identifies that God is before us and His hand is on our life for purpose and true destiny.
For many of us we are holding on by a thread and we are just wanting God to do what is necessary to meet a very real need, but God is wanting us to realize that He desire is to pick up where we have left off and take us and what He entrust us with to the next level. He is the God that inspired Paul to write: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). If we approach the Lord with the right motives, the right heart and the right spirit; He will carry us to places that we could not even imagine. He can carry us to a place of overflow. If we can only focus ourselves on what is important and being a good steward over His glory and His spirit He will honor that with more than we probably would even think to ask for, or begin to perceive! It is al in our motives!
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