5  At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask. What should I give you?”

6 And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity. You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.

7 “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. 8 Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

- 1 Kings 3:5-9 CSB

Do you know what my favorite thing is about this exchange between Solomon and the Lord in 1 Kings 3?

It’s not that God asked Solomon what he wanted, though that’s pretty cool.

It’s not that Solomon recognized God’s faithfulness to his father David, though I do really love reminders of God’s faithfulness in our lives.

My favorite thing about this exchange is that Solomon recognizes his inexperience as a shortcoming in his ability to lead.

He didn’t assume he’d be a great leader simply because he’d watched his father be a great leader. He didn’t assume he’d know what to do just because God appointed him to be next on the throne. He owned that his experiences up until that point had not prepared him to lead the people well, that he was too inexperienced to judge right from wrong.

You see, this exchange shows that Solomon didn’t just want to be a king, to sit on a throne and boss people around. He could have done that with zero leadership experience. No, Solomon wanted to lead his people well.

So, he asked for the one thing he knew his people needed most, the one thing he didn’t have time to try to grow on his own: discernment.

Sweet friend, have you ever found yourself appointed to a position, by God or by other people, that you knew you had zero experience doing? Have you ever been asked to take over for someone you’d watched working for some time but never actually done the work they did?

If you’re a parent, you had this experience with your firstborn. Honestly, I think I had it twice (being a girl mom after being a boy mom for 10 years was a new experience for sure). Your first job. Your first time driving a car. Your first year married.

Life is full of firsts and those firsts go a lot better when we know what we’re doing, when we can discern right from wrong. There’s a saying, “Experience is the best teacher.” But when your baby takes its first breath, you don’t have time to build experience. You’re on the job right then and there. When your boss asks you to take on a new client or a new task, when your teenager needs counsel on dating, when a ministry leader retires or moves away…

Sometimes there just isn’t time to build firsthand experience, and that’s why its so very important to embrace this exchange between God and Solomon in 1 Kings 3. That is why I’m so thankful for God’s gift of discernment.

Friend, God is a giver of good gifts. He knows He calls you to work sometimes that you don’t have any experience doing. He knows your life is full of firsts. He wants to give you discernment. Verse 10 of this passage tells us that God was pleased with Solomon’s request and blessed him with not only discernment, or wisdom as some versions translate, but also riches and honor and the promise of a long life.

If you’re facing a first today, if your inexperience is an issue you need resolved, don’t try to “fake it ’til you make it”. Ask God to provide you with His wisdom, with His discernment to know what is right and what is wrong, to serve others well. This is a request we know is pleasing to Him. It is one He will grant generously (James 1:5).