The Man After God's Own Heart

In this episode, we focus on David, the man. His posture is one to be studied and replicated by all of us of how we need to pursue to please God. In order for this to happen, the fruit of the Holy Spirit should be evident in our lives. Is this always the case in our lives currently?

Transcript

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Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Living in Exhortation. My name is Moham Wenwa, and today we'll be talking about the man after God's own heart. How did David manage to get this title? Well, for some time now, I struggled to understand the label that God gave to David, a man after my own heart. One of the reasons I believe I struggled with this is because in our modern times we focus a lot on David's weaknesses and aspects of his life that showed that he was a man like any other. To some extent, some people through reading his story try to argue what makes him so special. What I can say about David's story in the Bible is that there is no other man in God's word whose life has been elaborated as much as David's, both on his strengths as well as his challenges and vulnerabilities. All was laid bare for us to understand that we need God in order to fulfill his will in our lives. Nevertheless, God still chose to overlook all this and called him a man after my own heart. Why is this so? One of the key aspects that we need to understand is that with David, he always sought to please the Lord. In almost everything that he did, that was his goal. Whether it was in his praise, his worship, going into battle, he always sought to please the Lord. More so, something of significance needs to be highlighted about him that is not seen in many. When David was found or exposed in sin, he always had a repentant heart. We find this or we see this in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 13 and also 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 10. You can read those scriptures during your own free time. He always sought the fastest way to run back towards God. Deep down, because of his desire to please him, he was quick to acknowledge when he was wrong. He never wanted his relationship with God to break because he always realized that he needed God more than the Lord needed him. He understood that without God he was nothing. The second facet that really portrays David as a man after God's own heart is the way he treated King Saul. This was a king who, after David's triumphant defeat of Goliath and his growing influence amongst the people of Israel, realized that he will indeed be the next on the throne. His pride, jealousy, and insecurities could not allow it and therefore sought to kill David. However, it was in every instance that David found an opportunity to kill King Saul, to the shock of many, that he never took it. This happened twice. Again, you can go through scriptures during your free time, that is 1 Samuel chapter 24 and also 1 Samuel chapter 26. Interesting enough, King Saul in each occasion regretted his pursuit of David and promised not to continue, which was a lie. However, in all these instances, David still kept his respect for the king. He was humble enough to respect his position as the ruler of Israel, never retaliating, never speaking ill of him, even unto his death. That is King Saul. David always maintained a posture of humility and honor of the king, despite how he treated him all this time. There was no bitterness found in David's heart all through, and therefore never acted on any negative internal feelings he might have harbored towards King Saul. I believe this particular detail really was what portrayed David as a man after God's own heart. In my own opinion, I cannot believe being a person who is being pursued to be killed by a man who has more resources than I do, who has turned out to be my enemy, and I do not harbour any bitterness and revenge towards him. That's that's really challenging for any human being. Not only him, but his children and even and even his grandchildren. David never harbored any guilt or anger or jealousy or retaliation towards King Saul's children and grandchildren, which is really amazing. Nevertheless, a lot of these examples show the heart of God towards man. His mercies towards us are new every morning. Despite what we go ahead and do, that is against his will. There might be consequences in the end for our actions, no doubt. But all in all, he shows us every day that he still loves us. Yes. That is why David was a man after God's own heart. Food for thought? I choose to believe so. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, take care of yourselves and have a good one.