Good day. We read 1 Sam 16 today. God directs Samuel to anoint a new king. This new king is from the house of Jesse. During the process, Samuel learned an important lesson – God looks at the inside, not the outward appearance. Samuel learned firsthand what God sees in a leader.
Samuel looked at Eliab and thought he was the one. He based his choice on the outward appearance. God, however, looks at the heart.
You do not need to study psychology to know a good looking candidate has an advantage in the marketplace. Beauty is skin deep. However, many of us do not look past the outward appearance to assess the character of the person. Those who spend time trying to find out what’s inside of a person are often rewarded with a good employee or friends or spouse.
David is a man after God’s own heart. What does that mean? It means David attempts to align his heart with God’s will. It does not mean he is perfect. It simply means David is consciously making a choice to follow God’s way. Not my will but yours be done. Not my way, your way.
Multitudes of people do not know what God wants. Not as many people know what God wants and among them, perhaps a large portion of them prefer not to care what God wants. A smaller group of people know what God wants and care about what God wants. An even smaller number of people know what God wants, care about what God wants, and really try to do what God wants. David is one of them in the Bible. We see that even through he is a man after God’s heart, he is not infallable. In fact, when he was not following God closely, when he had a momentary lapse, he fall, and he had a great fall. That is the topic for another day (14 and 15 of May).
God looks at the inside, the heart, the character, the faith, the obedience. HR practitioners will tell you it is better to hire someone with good character than good skiils. Skills can be developed. Character is not easily formed. To be someone that pleases God, be someone that is beaufitul inside. There is nothing wrong being looking neat and clean and dashing. However, the priority – in so far as pleasing God goes – the focus should be making the inside person more attractive.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how “after God’s own heart” are you? How can you get a higher a rating?
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