One of the things I had to get used to when I first moved to the deep south, (Mississippi,) was that they actually attempt to wait on you in department stores. This was completely foreign to my growing-up years in the Washington, D.C. area - where no one ever spoke to anyone else - and they certainly didn’t wait on anyone cruising through a department store.
But in the south, the minute you walk into a department store, someone will buzz over to where you are with the question, “May I help you?” Why I was ever offended by the notion of someone attempting to help me, I’m not sure, but for some reason it was off-putting that you couldn’t just move around on your own without someone watching your every move. Soon I discovered, (once I got used to the idea,) that this was done in order to be “friendly.” There was no offense intended – just a desire to be as accommodating as they possibly could be. Where I grew up, nobody cared if you lived or died, much less if you had any questions or needed any directions to find what you were looking for.
The fact “being friendly” is a foreign concept is pretty strange if you think about it. Why shouldn’t everyone be friendly?
God is.
2 Chron 1:7 On that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, "Ask! What shall I give you?"
Isn’t that a startling question coming from God? Here is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, appearing to Solomon in a dream, basically saying, “May I help you?” “Do you need any help?” “Please ask!”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord posed that question to us – placing Himself in a position to meet our needs? And yet, that is exactly what Jesus declared about Himself, as both an example and as an exemplar to us. Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…To serve…me? And…you? This is an incredible new paradigm! (Only it isn’t new.)
Religion has long locked us into the mode of thinking that we are beholden to God - and we are – for everything, and in everything we are to rejoice and to give thanks! But how about this revelation that God desires to serve us? It sure sounds like the basis of a relationship doesn’t it? And, it sounds ultimately practical, since God HAS the power to meet all of our needs. So why do we so often hesitate to ask? How we need the wisdom of God to make it through these last of the last days! “I sure wish God had asked me to ask of Him like He did Solomon!” Oh…but He has…
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
- Pastor Bill
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