“He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 2:14
In 1 Kings 3 and 2 Chronicles 1, Solomon begins his reign as Israel’s third king by worshiping the Lord, and it wasn’t just any kind of worship! By offering over 1,000 animal sacrifices to the Lord, it was an extraordinary, extravagant worship. The kind of worship that invoked a response from the Lord that came in the form of a visit through a vision and included a question.
The question to Solomon from the Lord was, “What do you want?”, to which Solomon replied by asking the Lord for wisdom. One translation says wisdom, while another says Solomon asked for understanding. The truth is they are one in the same. You can’t have wisdom without understanding and you can’t have understanding without wisdom. Proverbs 4:7, written by Solomon himself says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in you’re getting, get understanding.”
Principal is defined as “first in order of importance; or main thing.” So, what would be the wisest thing we could know or do as New Covenant believers? That would be to “share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” by receiving and believing the message of the Good News which brings salvation. And, this “salvation” is Sozo Salvation. It’s not just a “getting us to Heaven when we die saved,” but rather an “abundant life to the full while here on earth saved with the expectation of heaven as our future home.”
Jesus died to save us, not only from our sins and judgement, but to an abundant life that includes all that this Sozo Salvation is defined as. And, as we see throughout the New Testament, “Sozo” (Saved) literally means to save, heal, deliver, preserve, protect, make prosperous, and make whole. That’s the Father’s heart and desire for you and me, and Jesus brought all of this into existence.
Today, embrace the “principal thing” God gave us through Jesus, Sozo, and according to John 10:10, live life to the full till it overflows.