Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”
Does God remember King Solomon's prayer? (It's buried in 1 Kings 8:22-61.) Your happiness now and forever depends on your answer.
You’ve read about his temple, with furniture of solid gold, and wallpaper also of solid gold. Huge crowds were present at the dedication. His prayer is the longest in the Bible. He knelt with his hands lifted up to heaven (vs. 54). It takes us a long time even to read it; he must have been tired.
Eleven times he prays to the great God of all the earth to "hear," to "listen," to anybody in all the world who prays to Him, even the pagans and the heathen anywhere whose heart turns toward Him. Solomon seemed obsessed with this idea of begging God to listen or hear, even if those who pray have rebelled against Him, disobeyed, "forsaken … the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods and served them" (Jer. 9:22). The invitation is to sinners everywhere: "Hear … their prayer and their supplication," Solomon begs (vs. 49).
Even if they should languish as captives in a foreign land, if they would “come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness,’ … then hear … their prayer and their supplication (vss. 46-49).
Now the question: Does God remember Solomon's prayer? The king asks in verse 59 that “these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord” be recorded before the eyes of God, forever, written on the walls of His heavenly sanctuary!
If you answer the question, Yes, then know that He welcomes you, a sinner, into His presence, and that He indeed "hears," "listens," to your prayer.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 19, 2001.
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