38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, orby all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, eventhou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. (1 Kings 8:39-40)

I was touched by these verses, particularly as it speaks of every man knowing the plague of his own heart. I suspect we all have issues that plague us, things in our own character or thought process that we know aren’t helping us, that are causing us to self-sabotage in some way, things that we can’t quite get the better of on our own. But we can turn to the Lord in the temple for help with them.

Solomon asks the Lord to hear, to forgive, and do, and give to each person according to his ways, or according to his needs so that they know it is the Lord’s hand in their lives. The different actions possible give us some insight on what we might ask the Lord for.

Forgive – we can ask for our sins to be pardoned

Do – we can ask for the Lord to intervene in our lives or the lives of others in a variety of ways