“What do you want”? As a parent, I ask my kids this question all the time. “What do you want to eat, what do you want to wear, what do you want me to do for you, what do you want …” When I ask it, I do so with the implication and confidence that not only do I have the power and resources to fulfill their request but I have the desire because I love them, because I am their mom. While I feel obligated to meet their needs, I delight in giving them their wants and desires. I wonder if the same could be true of God, for he is often referred to in the bible as our heavenly father. Last week I was reading a passage in the bible from 2 Chronicles 1:7 that began to give me my answer.
God said to King Solomon, son of David, “ask me for whatever you want me to give you”.
I was familiar with this story and knew exactly what Solomon asked for “wisdom to rule these people”. At the time, I didn’t believe their ancient encounter had any implications for me. I continued my reading and flipped randomly over to a passage from the book of Matthew. I was struck by the “coincidence” in the wording I wandered upon,
“Jesus said to the blind man “what do you want me to do for you.”
I toyed with these words and felt there was divine insight I was to receive but my phone rang and the moment was gone! Hours later, in the midst of a very hectic day, I received an email from a friend encouraging me with a verse from Psalm 2. For some reason, I felt compelled to stop my work and read the entire psalm. I grabbed my “message bible”, a favorite translation of mine and read the powerful words. When I was halfway through the text, what I read almost caused me to fall out of my chair!
“Let me tell you what God said next, ‘you are my precious princess daughter (that was a little Jenny paraphrase – it actually says son) today is your birthday (mine was just days away on Nov. 7th) what do you want? Name it. Nations as a present? Continents as a prize? You can command them all to dance for you, or throw them out with tomorrow’s trash.”
God had my attention now. Three times in one day the words, the questions “what do you want” were right before my eyes! I now believed these words were for me – personally for me! I read them again and contemplated the impossible for they now were pregnant with such possibility for me. This ancient question seared my soul with electricity! I felt like I did when I was a child on Christmas Eve anticipating Christmas morning! It was if God, my good, loving heavenly daddy handed me a catalog filled with all my wants and heart’s desires saying “baby girl pick out whatever you want, I have the power and resources to give it to you”! And in that precious moment, I totally and completely believed him.
Without hesitation, I began to “shop†through the catalog of my needs, wants, and desires. What I discovered was startling. Such that I was utterly amazed and caught off guard. For the very first time in my life I didn’t WANT anything … for me. Nothing! At once, all my needs paled in comparison to the fact that children were being sold for sex. What could I ask for in light of their pain? Instantly, my overwhelming and urgent desire was to build Courage House, a home for children rescued from sex trafficking here in the U.S., in Tanzania and around the world – to see them restored to be and do all God created them to. I wanted to be the very first person to tell them they were created on purpose for a purpose! In that precious pause, I wanted to rescue and restore those kids more than I wanted anything else in this whole world. I wanted to be a part of stopping the evil and setting the captives free. The sense of urgency was so great that I asked; I boldly answered my heavenly father’s question “what do you want”. “I want $1,120,000.00 for them, for the invisible, vulnerable children. This had truly become the desire of my heart”.
As I answered God, I was reminded of another Psalm (37:4) “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Oh how I am counting on that, counting on his love for me and for these children!