If You Had One Wish
Tuesday (October 21)
If You Had One Wish
Psalm 27:4
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.
My mom loves to tell the story of my kindergarten year at Wiley International School, where there was an end-of-the-year party in the classroom, with displays from all the projects we’d completed that year, and one major display was a large board with a prompt in the middle that read, “If you have only one wish, what would it be?” The large bubble-lettered prompt was surrounded by notecards that had been stapled to the board with answers from all of us kindergarteners. Some answers were sad, like, “I wish I had a dad,” or “I wish my brother’s cancer would go away.” Others were deep and even profound, like, “I wish all the poor children in the world had food and water,” and “I wish people would stop fighting and just live in peace together.” Others were the typical things you’d expect a child to say, like, “I wish I could fly,” or “I wish I could turn invisible.” But my answer wasn’t like any of those. Mine embarrassed my mom to read at the time—though now she gets a kick out of it. My card simply read: “I wish I could sit on a cloud.”
Well, what’s your number one wish in life right now, friend? Seriously. If you could have one thing from God, what would it be? A restored relationship with a spouse? A new job that gives you fulfillment and doesn’t leave you worn down? Healing from that chronic disease? A good church that preaches the Bible? I’m convicted by David’s singular resolve in Psalm 24:4 to be nearer to God. This is an illustration of what our Lord meant when He taught us to “seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.” How often I run to God in my time of desperation or illness or poverty, begging for help, but not first being still in His presence and knowing that He is God and that He is good and that He has my life in the wounded palm of His redeeming hand.
As we go about our business today, friend, may the affection of our hearts that fuels all our ambition be to walk with Jesus through every moment.