This man had a dream and in that dream he was approached by God.
God spoke to him and offered him the opportunity to ask for anything and it would be granted to him. If that was offered to you, how would you respond?
It’s an interesting question to ponder because this man gave a very pleasing answer. He got what he asked for and other things on top of that. Yet the end of his life was distinctly worse than the beginning. Despite getting what he asked for, he still managed to severely corrupt things not just for his generation but for others to come.
This gave the impression that for whatever we ask of a positive nature it can still turn out to have a bad outcome. Is it always to be the human endeavour that however well things start it will go wrong?
It’s a sobering lesson, though. Sobering in the sense that we really should be careful what we ask for. It’s not stopping anyone for asking, it is to say that if we make the request, there should be as much thought given to sustaining a good thing than getting something for immediate gratification.
That, however, appears to be once more an issue of relationship and faithfulness. We treasure the relationship with the one who gives us what we ask for. We treasure that more than the gift and we will make the most of the gift in honour of that relationship. We get things mixed up and prefer the focus on the gift and its immediate benefit to us rather the first relationship and it’s easy for good things to go wrong.
It’s about if who we treasure is more important than what we treasure.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 