I remember overhearing a conversation between my two youngest grandsons. Brennan, asked his younger brother, Bryson, “If you had a genie in a bottle, what would you wish for?” They certainly earned love tokens when they both said: “For Nana to live with us forever!” They had some other outlandish wishes, but that one put a big smile on this Nana’s face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That conversation and memory made me think about what I would ask for today if a genie in a bottle showed up to grant me one wish, or even if God showed up and asked what one prayer could He answer for me today. How about you? What would YOU ask for? What does YOUR heart long for the most? No doubt, our answers would vary: More time in the day? A healed body? A restored relationship? A financial breakthrough? A child? A spouse? Strength to make it through this day? A dream vacation? World peace? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
King David\u2019s son, Solomon, was asked by God what one thing He could grant him. King Solomon responded: “wisdom to lead God\u2019s people.” Evidently, God liked that response because He gave him a wise and discerning mind. And Solomon became known as the wisest man in all of Israel. People from far and wide came to him for his wisdom. (1 Kings 3) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
King David’s wish (or ask) went like this: \u201cOne thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.\u201d (Psalm 27:4) I am drawn to the \u201cone thing\u201d David asked of God \u2014 to dwell in His house forever. More than anything, David longed to be in God\u2019s presence. No wonder he was called \u201ca man after God\u2019s own heart.\u201d David experienced many highs and lows in his life, but I think his life’s theme was a singular longing to be in God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my blog yesterday, I spoke about being in God\u2019s presence \u2013 how in His presence, we will know what to do, where to go and even what to say \u2013 because in His presence is the answer for everything. That is \u201cmy wish\u201d and my prayer today, that our hearts will be filled with this one thing . . . a desire to dwell in His presence. I\u2019m pretty sure God delights in lavishing His love upon us. In fact, Jesus tells us God takes it to a level beyond anything any parent has ever done for their children. After all, He has already been more generous toward us than we will ever deserve. To live daily practicing His presence creates plenty of opportunities for God to show up and show out. No, He’s not a Genie or Fairy Godmother, but He is the God in WHOM all things are possible. What better place to be than in His presence?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remember overhearing a conversation between my two youngest grandsons. Brennan, asked his younger brother, Bryson, “If you had a genie in a bottle, what would you wish for?” They certainly earned love tokens when they both said: “For Nana to live with us forever!” They had some other outlandish wishes, but that one put…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13670,13669,13668],"tags":[13673,13674,13679,13680,11365,8006,8007,2215,98,2610,1066,7929,3347,1493,13678,13671],"class_list":["post-10401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bottle","category-genie","category-wish","tag-1-kings-3","tag-discerning","tag-dwell-in-the-house","tag-fair-godmother","tag-generous","tag-genie","tag-genie-in-a-bottle","tag-gods-presence","tag-king-david","tag-king-solomon","tag-prayer","tag-psalm-274","tag-temple","tag-wisdom","tag-wise","tag-wish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10404,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions\/10404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}