This isn't wrong. It isn't necessarily selfish or self-centered. I'm not a bad Christian because I lay out to God the desires of my heart and ask Him to provide for me according to His will. That's Biblical.
What if, though, I only asked God for one thing. What would it be?
Would I pray for my marriage, or the health and well being of my family? Would I pray for security, safety, success? What is the one thing I would lift up to Him?
I'm not sure.
Really, I'm not. Some might say I should pray for salvation, which is certainly true if you don't have it. Others may say I should pray for faith, which isn't a bad thought at all. There's obedience, and strength, courage and perseverance, love, hope, humility . . . The list goes on and on.
None of these are bad. I'm just not sure any of them are the one.
What did David pray for?
In Psalm 27:4 David said there was one thing he asked of the Lord, one thing which he sought. He wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to see Him in His temple.
That sounds good. But what does it mean?
David spent a lot of his time fighting with Saul, the Philistines, and other enemies. This often put him at a distance from the tabernacle, from the physical representation of God's presence on earth, from the site of communal worship and fellowship with his people. David missed that. At the time he wrote the 27th Psalm, it seems to be the one thing he missed the most, the one thing he asked God to give him.
David wanted to be in the presence of God. He desired, more than anything, to be as close to his Lord as anyone could be. In His house. No wonder God considered David to be a man after His own heart.
David knew what was important.
He didn't lift up his kingship. Winning a battle didn't come first to his mind. Even his own safety and security were secondary to this one request. God, I want to be with you.
That's insight. That's faith. That's having your priorities in the right order. Because if you have that, if you have a closeness with God, everything else is going to be just fine. It may not end up how you thought you wanted it, but when you are in the presence of God, you have a different perspective.
I'm going to try to follow David's example. I'm going to try to put being in God's presence at the top of my prayer list every day. I'm going to try to get my priorities straight, to realize and understand that the one thing that really matters is God in my life.
I believe, when I do that, everything else will be just as it's supposed to be.
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