Does my heart work like His?
Most of us will recognize the title topic as a description of David, as recorded in 1 Samuel 13:14. Paul also makes reference to it in Acts 13:22, and this is perhaps even more instructive to us as we endeavor to understand the heart we are to have as believers: “And when He had removed [Saul], He raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also He gave testimony, and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, which shall fulfill all My will.’”
Saul and David are pictures of the unbeliever and the believer, respectively. Saul made decisions according to pride, fleshly needs, fear, and self-interest. David usually made decisions according to humility, spiritual needs, faith, and God’s interests.
What is encouraging about the label given to David is that God is the one who gave it. This was His assessment of David. That reminds us of Christ’s analysis of the heart of Peter and the other sleeping disciples, when He said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41). David committed many sins which stand out to us. But the greater volume of evidence (especially in the Psalms) shows the man that God saw. The real David knew his place before a sovereign God and very much valued the work of redemption that only God could do in his soul. He was a man who was not caught up in religious expression of his beliefs, but in “a broken and contrite heart” that he could entrust by faith to the One who loved him very much. His prayers were interactive with a very personal God.
This is the kind of person the Lord Jesus spoke about in John 4: someone who worships “in spirit and in truth” (v.?24). Such a person finds worship, praise, and thanks to be natural, since “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt. 12:34).
A possession
God, in His infinite wisdom, knows that trials and pressures are excellent ways to reveal our hearts. When Samuel announced to Saul God’s rejection of him as king and His choosing of someone else, Saul’s lack of obedience was the stated reason. The immediate context was the presumptuous act of Saul to offer a sacrifice, due to his fear and pride. He was seeking God’s blessing rather than God Himself. The pressures of leadership and enemies created a stress level that Saul couldn’t handle. And it revealed his ungodly heart.
David, on the other hand, was characterized by an apparently supernatural peace during the storms that assailed him. When enemies closed in, or even his family turned against him, he sought the Lord. He didn’t demand that his circumstances change; rather he wanted to know God’s mind on the matter. He wanted to live according to God’s heart.
Saul wouldn’t wait; he just didn’t have the faith to do so. His solutions were according to human reasoning. But we are stunned by David’s thinking. Which of us, if we were in David’s sandals, tired and sore from being hounded and hunted by our enemies, would have spared the life of our enemy when he was apparently given right into our hands (cf. 1 Sam. 24 & 26). David felt guilty for even cutting part of Saul’s cloak! Why? Because he would rather wait for the Lord to vindicate him than to have immediate self-vindication.
In David’s example, we see that we are to be “according to” God’s heart. There is to be an agreement between our heart and His. In fact, we are to count ourselves dead and to embrace the new creation that we are in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Much of our frustration as Christians comes from the balancing act we try to maintain between our old nature and the new. The secret is to live as much as possible according to God’s own heart. Hear the words of God through Jeremiah: “And they shall be My people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me forever, …that they shall not depart from Me” (Jer. 32:38-40).
This is also the kind of mindset the Lord Jesus was prescribing when He called us to take up His yoke and learn from Him since He is “meek and lowly of heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls” (Mt. 11:29). We often get obsessed with knowing what work we are to be doing once the yoke is on rather than doing whatever work it is with the heart and attitude of Christ. Since the flesh fights the spirit, we must always take the learner mode in order for our Master to teach us whatever we need to know so that His will can be accomplished.
God knew the result of choosing such a man as David “which shall fulfill all my will” (Acts 13:22). People who possess the heart of God are people who seek and accomplish the will of God. As always, this is best seen in the Lord Jesus (Jn. 8:29; 10:30; Isa. 53:10).
A pursuit
We have noted that “after” God’s own heart can mean “according to,” in that we possess or function from a heart that works like His. Yet it is also true that David sought God’s heart, much like a thirsty deer in pursuit of the water that will satisfy it (Ps. 42:1). Such is the evidence of genuine saving faith (Php. 3:8; Jn. 15:8; Col. 1:10-12; Heb. 12:1-2; Rom. 8:13-14; Lk. 9:23-24).
God wants to be sought out; He wants us to take Him and His ways seriously and to pursue them. And He delights to be found by us and to reveal the intimacies of His heart to those who commit their own heart purely to Him (Jer. 29:13; Lam. 3:25; 2 Tim. 2:22; Prov. 3:32).
Again, many of the frustrations in our Christian walk come from seeking to do things for God rather than living our life by God. We are to walk in Christ. Although believers possess the heart of the Lord through the indwelling Spirit, we need to submit and funnel all our energies into a oneness of pursuit and focus, as the Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ, in order to bring glory to the Father.
Do we profess to be believers? If so, what difference does that make in our lives? What priorities can others see in our lifestyle? More importantly, what testimony would God Himself give if He were to tell others about us? Would He say, “These are people who are after My own heart”?
Saul failed because of fear and pride; David succeeded because of faith and humility. Saul couldn’t take his eyes off himself or his circumstances; David’s eyes were always drawn back to the Lord, even when he failed miserably. It was all rooted in the heart. David wasn’t perfect, but he was still an excellent example. Let’s close this brief study by hearing from the overflow of his heart:
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple….When Thou didst say, ‘Seek ye My face’; my heart said unto Thee, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek’….Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” (Ps. 27:4, 8, 14)