It happens at Christmas every year. Parents encourage their youngsters to make out their Christmas List. Sometimes kids are encouraged to write a letter to Santa enumerating the items they wish for Santa to bring them. I've been tickled through the years reading the fanciful yearnings of children's letters to Santa published in the local newspaper. Proclamation is often made of how good a person they had been in the past. Occasionally a child reports on the behavior of their siblings, good and bad. Of course there are always promises to do better next year and the inevitable bribe.
As children grow to adulthood, it seems to me that our approach to God is similar to our approach to Santa. We make a wish list that we present before God of things we want, need or desire. We make all sorts of promises about how we'll change if God comes through. And there's always the bribe technique, as if God could be bribed or manipulated.
I'm sure to God, many of our prayers are just as amusing to Him as letters to Santa are to me. I wonder if He records them and puts them on AngelTube for the residents of heaven to enjoy. Yet, there is one prayer that I'm sure God was glad to hear. It's found here in Proverbs 30. It's an honest, realistic, humble prayer. It has two basic components: 1) Keep lies and falsehoods away from me; and 2) Don't make me poor or rich.
Deception kills relationships. Since relationships are based on trust, when that trust is violated through lying, the relationship is undermined. Truth, honesty, and integrity are keys to a solid foundation in any relationship. That includes our relationship with God. If I'm trying to deceive God, it damages my relationship with Him.
I remember sitting in a class discussing Joseph Fletcher's proposal of "Situation Ethics." The question posed, "is it right to steal food or money for food when your family is starving?" The debate was intense. I don't remember the resolution the class came to, just the intensity of the debate. Solomon knew his nature. He asks God not to make him poor because he knew he'd steal to feed himself and his family and thus dishonor God.
Ironically, he also asked God not to make him rich so that he could maintain his dependency upon God. Yet, we know that Solomon did become the richest man who'd ever lived and that his riches led him away from God at the end of his life. He embraced other gods celebrated by his many wives. Evidently, Solomon relied so much on his own wisdom and wealth that he ended up, just as he predicted, walking away from God.
As I look at my own heart, it's probably no different than Solomon's. I need to pray the same prayer. I certainly don't have the wisdom of Solomon, but I know I have the same propensities.
God, I can't imagine disowning owning you. I definitely don't want to dishonor you. I'm making Solomon's prayer here my own. I want to live a life of integrity before you. All I ask is that you meet my needs. I know living in dependency upon you is actually living fully.
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