From Great Days with the Great Lives, by Chuck Swindoll. Pg 102
Read I Samuel 13:1-14
When God scans the earth for potential leaders, He’s not on a search for angels in the flesh. He is certainly not looking for perfect people, since there are none. He is searching for men and women like you and me, mere people made up of flesh, bone, and blood. But He is also looking for certain qualities in these people, like the qualities He found in David.
The first quality God saw in David was a heart for God. “The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart” (I Samuel 13:13). What does it mean to be a person after God’s own heart? Seems to me, it means that you are a person whose life is in harmony with the Lord. What is important to Him is what is important to you. What burdens Him burdens you. When He says, “Go to the right,” you go to the right. When He says, “Stop that in your life,” you stop it. When He says, “This is something I want you to change,” you come to terms with it because you have a heart for God. That most definitely is Bottom Line Christianity.
When you are deeply spiritual, you have a heart that is sensitive to the things of God. A parallel verse in II Chronicles confirms this: “ For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”(16:9, emphasis added).
BOTTOM LINE NOW:
God is looking for men and women whose hearts are completely His – again, the word is completely, no wiggle room!
That means there are no locked closets. Nothing’s been swept under the rugs.
That means when you do wrong, you admit immediately and come to terms with it. You’ve grieved over your wrong.
You’re concerned about those things that displease your heavenly Father.
You long to please Him in your actions.
You care about the motives behind your actions.
The above statements are indicators you have a heart for God, and that’s the first quality David had. Are you open to even considering if you have a heart for God? Is that question offensive to you? Can you explain the who – what – when -where & why if it is offensive? I was prompted to close with the verses below from 1 Corinthians 4:6-9 (MSG)
6.) All I’m doing right now, friends, is showing how these things pertain to Apollos and me so that you will learn restraint and not rush into making judgments without knowing all the facts. It’s important to look at things from God’s point of view. I would rather not see you inflating or deflating reputations based on mere hearsay.
7.) For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing?
8.) You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you’re sitting on top of the world—at least God’s world—and we’re right there, sitting alongside you!
9.) It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street.
NEXT UP: People Panic … God Provides.