I used to pray that God would show me His will so that I wouldn’t stray from it. But then I realized that if I’m praying, and staying in the Word, and making every effort to love others, fixing my eyes on Jesus, I am doing God’s will. That is His will for me: obedience.
Following God’s will isn’t about walking a rigid line that I can’t see unless He reveals it. It’s not something that causes bad things to happen if you step off the line. Sure, there are consequences for bad behavior, but that’s disobedience, not misinterpreting God’s will.
“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” –1 Kings 3:9, NIV
God made Solomon the wisest person that ever lived. You would think that with all that wisdom, he would have understood obedience. But maybe it was the wisdom that caused him problems. Maybe his wisdom led to him to justify his disobedience. He might have thought that taking foreign wives was good for the security of the nation. And letting them keep their gods was a part of that.
You see? Wisdom can be outside of God’s will when it becomes justification for doing wrong.
Solomon let his love for his foreign wives corrupt him. The glorious kingdom that God gave him was taken away. The Israelites always believed that when God fulfilled his promise to restore their kingdom, it would be like Solomon’s kingdom again. They longed for what was. But they forgot that Solomon’s kingdom didn’t last, and God promised a kingdom that would have no end.
Solomon had many wives. Jesus only had one bride, the church. He will never make allowances for her to follow false gods.
We aren’t meant to long for what was. We are supposed to fix our eyes on what is to come: a kingdom that will last forever and a king who is worthy to receive all our honor and praise and obedience.
With Love In Christ,
Stephanie