“You may have any color car you want just so long as it is black.” This statement is attributed to Henry Ford when he was making his famous Model T automobiles.
Could we be guilty of making this same kind of statement when, in prayer, we ask God to guide our steps and then tell Him what we want Him to do for us? Just how much do we rely on God to direct our paths, and how much do we go the way we want to go and then ask God to bless what we are doing?
How do we know which way is God’s way and which way is ours? This is a difficult question to answer. If we really do believe “all things are working together for our good because we love God,” then we need to live and walk with the confidence that God is active in our lives.
We can look to King Solomon as an example of what to say and what not to do. When God spake to the young man, barely 20, He said, “Ask what I shall give thee.” Solomon’s answer illustrates what out attitude should be. “Give thy servant an understanding heart.” God was pleased with that request and said, “Behold, I have done according to thy words; lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart…And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statues and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.”
Solomon died at 60, so his days were not lengthened. Why? Because even though God gave him great wisdom, Solomon chose to go against the commands of God. The Lord had said to Moses concerning any future king of Israel, “but he shall not multiply horses to himself…neither shall he multiply wives to himself…neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” Solomon knew better but he did not do better. We read that “Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots,” he “exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches” and “king Solomon loved many strange women.”
Nehemiah tells us, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.”
God gives us choices, and He is pleased when we choose to follow Him. He is not pleased if we go against His commands. Concerning Solomon, we read that “The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.” God has not appeared to us as He did to Solomon, but He is just as anxious for us to allow Him to give us what we should have as He was when He blessed Solomon.
God is willing to guide our steps but we must heed the counsel of King Solomon’s father, David, who said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” He will guide our steps but we need to listen to His word; He will not bless us if we ask for His blessing and then do our own thing.
Solomon said it right even though he did not always do it right. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One