The Story: Chapter 11 - David's Heart

One Saturday afternoon when I was in middle school, I came home from a youth group trip to an empty house.  I didn't think much of it... I knew how to get in... so I did.  Nobody was at home so I went about my normal "I'm home by myself" routine.  After about 15 minutes, a knock came at the front door.  It was my youth pastor, who had just dropped me off, and a friend of our family.  (This was in the day before cell phones and instant communication.)

He told me that my Grandpa had died of a heart attack that morning while we were away.

While we were gone all day... my family had been dealing with this tragedy and I didn't even know it.  See, my Grandpa had had some trouble with his heart... he had high cholesterol and ate foods he shouldn't and smoked a pipe and eventually it caught up with him.  That's part of the reason why I began to run over 3 years ago... I know that family history is there and I want to avoid it.

There are times when I wish I could take my heart out of my chest and check it over.  You know... make sure that it's okay.  Clean out the corners like I clean out my son's humidifier.  Unfortunately, I can't just pop it out... I would die.

Spiritually, there are times when I wish I could pop out my heart and have a look at it too.

This week in the Story, we read about David's heart.  And we get an opportunity to see his heart from God's perspective.  Did David have sin?  Absolutely... next week we'll read about the greatest of his sin with Bathsheba.  Were there things David wished were different about his heart?  Sure.  Was David's heart messed up in some areas?  It must have been to do what he did.

But yet... what does God say David's heart?  Look again: "⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.   A little bit later in Acts we read more about what God looks for: ²² After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Acts 13:22. 

See... I know my sin (as Scripture says... it's always before me) and I know my dark places.  And I know God knows those places too.  I'm sure David knew his places as well as God did.  Yet God still called him a man after His own heart.  Does he see my heart that way too?  

JC



Tweet