Wisdom is something that we would all love to have. I don’t know a single person who, if asked, wouldn’t want to be wise. But I wonder how high it is on our priority list of desires. I wonder whether we actually yearn for wisdom.

Wisdom is something that I think, we all desire. I mean, I don’t know anyone on this planet, who, if asked, wouldn’t want to be wise. But I wonder just how high it is up our priority list of wants and desires.

We long after different things in our lives. Sometimes we yearn for love, acceptance and companionship. Other times it might by something more basic – like enough food to eat. There are plenty of people on this earth who simply don’t have the basics – food, clean water, shelter.

But in affluent places, we yearn, frankly, for silly things. A new pet dog – nice, but not essential. The latest hair style, the latest fashion accessory, a new dress in this season’s colours, a new car – shiny and bright, just like the one on the TV add.

Right now, given what’s going on in your life, what do you yearn for? What’s the object of longing that’s dominating your heart and mind right at this moment. Does godly wisdom even feature in, say, your top three desires? If you’re like most people, the answer is: probably not.

When Solomon, the son of King David, was still a young man, he became the king of Israel. What a huge responsibility. Ruling a country, that young, that immature, with so little experience. He knew it was way beyond him, just like many of the things that you and I confront in life are beyond us.

One night he had a dream. And in that dream, God said to him:

Ask what I should give you. (1 Kings 3:5)

I wonder … I wonder if God appeared to you and me in a dream one night and said that to us, what we would ask for. Well, here’s what Solomon asked for:

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people? (1 Kings 3:9)

And then, we’re told in the very next verse that:

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. (1 Kings 3:10-13)

So asking for wisdom, it seems, asking unselfishly for the right thing, is an act that pleases God and releases great blessing into our lives.

Just imagine what your life would look like if you yearned for the wisdom of God. Imagine what your life would look like if, like King Solomon, you petitioned God for the wisdom to do the things that He has set before you, the things that in your heart of hearts, you know are way before you.

It would please the Lord no end. It would bring you rewards that go way beyond anything you could ever have imagined.

When we ask God for wisdom, we’re asking Him for something that’s not so much about us, as it is about serving Him and other people.

Think about the things that you need wisdom for in your life right at the moment. What are the things that are going on in your relationships that are beyond you? What decisions do you need to make that are going to have an impact on your life and perhaps the lives of others, that you’re just not sure about?

The young and inexperienced King Solomon wanted wisdom to govern God’s people. So when he asked God for an understanding and discerning mind, instead of wealth and honour as king, the longing in his heart was for his people, not for himself. He could have asked for great riches and honour, but instead He asked for wisdom.

You know what I think. I think that all too often we ask God for things that are about us. Our needs, our Now, just as Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” there’s nothing wrong with asking God to meet our needs.

But if that’s all we ask of Him, then it’s a pretty selfish little prayer life that we’re having isn’t it? It’s a pretty narrow life that we end up leading.

Imagine if you could see your problems through God’s eyes. Imagine if you could see your circumstances, the decisions that you need to make, through God’s eyes. Imagine if you could stand on heaven’s balcony and see the view from there.

I think that’s what wisdom is. God’s wisdom gives us a completely different perspective. God’s wisdom helps us see the bigger picture, rather than our own little narrow circumstances.

A thousand or so years after Solomon, the Apostle Paul found himself in a Roman dungeon, chained to a guard, on death row. Imagine how easy it would have been for him to have a narrow view of his circumstances. But instead, he was able to write:

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

There’s a man filled with the wisdom of God. There’s a man who can see his dire circumstances from the vantage point of heaven’s balcony.

Back to you. Back to your life. Your dilemmas. Your decisions. The things that are before you that you know are way beyond you. The struggles, the hurts, the situation that’s confusing you and confounding you at the moment.

Your God wants to show you the big picture. Your God wants to put His arm around you and show you the view from heaven’s balcony. Now sure, He may not show you the whole picture, but if you’ll just ask Him for His wisdom, it will please His Father’s heart and He will show you just enough to get you through.

Just today, I opened God’s Word, as I do almost every morning. I’m reading through the Psalms at the moment. There are 150 of them and today I was up to Psalm 91. I’ve had a pretty rough travel schedule over the past few weeks. I’ve had a punched nerve in my neck. I was tired and sore and you know it as well as I do, when you’re physically down. You can be emotionally down too.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1,2)

That Psalm was just the wisdom, the encouragement, the comfort, the heavenly perspective that I needed today. That Psalm is why, right now, I am full of the joy of the Lord, which, by the way, is my strength.

In my life, I’ve come to yearn for the wisdom of God. There are so many things that God sets before me that are way beyond my ability to figure out. There are problems that come along, challenges, things that I wish I could figure out for myself but just can’t. So I pray, I read God’s Word, every day and somehow – I can’t explain exactly how, I can’t give you a formula – God gives me His wisdom. Because He knows I lng for it. He knows I long to see His kingdom come, His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.

Sometimes He brings along someone with a brilliant idea that I would never have had on my own. Sometimes His Word just leaps off the page and gives me the answer I was looking for. Sometimes H nudges me in this direction or that.

The Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. You know, when we yearn for God’s wisdom, when we long to hear Him speak, when we go to Him as Solomon did and ask for wisdom and discernment, it brings joy to His heart and He pours it out on us, just like we asked. It’s who He is. It’s how it works.

God’s Wisdom is ready and waiting for you.