A Man after God’s Own Heart

Today, as we celebrate Father’s Day, we acknowledge all fathers, regardless of our relationships with them. But beyond our earthly fathers, we are reminded of our perfect heavenly Father. He is a Father who loves us unconditionally, has redeemed us, and claims us as His beloved children, irrespective of our past or present circumstances. This is the Father we can always turn to, who offers us grace and mercy.

If you spend enough time reading the Bible, you will notice that it never flatters its heroes. It tells us the complete truth, good and bad, about everyone we meet. Showing us the good and the bad, the victories and the defeats, the triumphs of character, and the complete lack of character gives us a wonderful glimpse into God's grace and mercy.

As we delve into the Bible, we encounter a striking truth that doesn't present its heroes as perfect. Instead, it reveals the complete truth, the good and the bad, about everyone we meet. It shows us men and women who are scoundrels, liars, and sinners who demonstrate tremendous strength of faith along with immense failure. These are people like you and me. We read about these heroes of the faith in the Bible, and if we are honest, it is like reading our autobiography in many ways.

Let us not forget that God isn’t seeking perfection. He is seeking men and women who are genuinely devoted to His interests. David, despite his flaws, was a man after God's heart. His story reminds us that our imperfections do not disqualify us from God's love and purpose. David was such a man after God’s heart that more has been written about him than any other biblical character. David had God’s spirit working powerfully in and through him, but he was still capable of the most glaring sins, both public and private, and private sins that went public.

He was capable of tremendous grace towards his enemies, massive faith in God, deep emotions in his worship, incredible courage in the face of Goliath-sized odds, and immense financial generosity when building God’s Temple. But he was also subject to deep depression, fits of rage, tremendous lust, lying, deceiving, and Academy Award-winning acting when he needed to look crazy, drooling on his beard and scratching doors with his fingernails.

And this is the man God said was after His own heart? God’s reason for choosing people to be used in His Kingdom differs from why we’d choose people.

Before I give you the qualities, let me give you a brief history. We have seen the people ask Samuel to provide them with a king. Samuel makes Saul king, but God rejects Saul because Saul would not keep the Lord’s command. Saul was told to wait seven days in Gilgal until Samuel arrived to present burnt offerings to God. But Samuel doesn’t arrive on time, and Saul’s troops start to scatter.

Although afraid of losing his men, Saul offers a burnt sacrifice, and Samuel appears. Saul’s sin wasn’t in offering the sacrifice, for David and Solomon offer similar sacrifices. Saul’s sin was in disobeying God’s word. But the truth is to obey is better than sacrifice; to heed God’s voice is better than offering the fat of rams. As a result, God rejected Saul. But God had His eye on another—a man, as Samuel said in 1 Sam 13:14, “after his own heart.”

God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to find God’s anointed one, the one God chose before anyone else even knew it. And that is often the way with God. He makes choices long before He tells His servants, the prophets, preachers, and leaders.

What were David's qualities that made God say, even before He was anointed king, that David was a man after God’s heart? What are the qualities God is still looking for in men and women that would make them people whose heart is fully engaged in following God?

1. Spirituality - To be a “spiritual” person does not mean you walk around silently like some ancient mystic, listening to the quiet breath of God for instructions on what to say and how to pray. It doesn’t mean you’re always ready to say something prophetic and give a word of knowledge. It doesn’t mean you can quote a thousand different verses on any given subject. Try this as a definition for spirituality: Living your life in harmony with God.

To be spiritual means you make God’s thoughts your thoughts and God’s priorities your priorities. What is important to God is important to you. What burdens God burdens you. When He says, “Go right,” you go right but you don’t ask, “Why?” A spiritual person decides to follow God, knowing that God doesn’t need to explain Himself to anyone. A spiritual person is one whose heart is sensitive to the things of God. 2 Chron. 16:9 says, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” God is looking for men and women who are completely dedicated to Him.

David was completely dedicated to God in every aspect of his earthly life. The most spiritual people are the most ordinary people. A spiritual person is a man or woman who longs to please God. They know going in that loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength will not please every one of their friends or family.

A spiritual person, although they are concerned with the thoughts of others, does not make what other people think their prime motivation for doing what they do. They know that at the end of their lives, they must answer to God, so they look to make their every moment count in the sight of God. And when they fail, which they will, although hopefully not quite as dramatically as David failed, they turn quickly to God, grieve over their wrongs, and allow His grace and forgiveness to guide their actions. A spiritual person is an everyday person who puts God first in everything they do.

Question: Who is the most “spiritual” person you know?

2. Humility. It is hard to be proud when you are the eighth of eight sons. Forever, you will be the baby brother. Be the eighth out of eight kids, and you learn to be humble in a hurry. For humility, it’s been said, comes through humiliation.

When Samuel arrives in Bethlehem, he asks Jesse to assemble his sons. So Jesse, starting with the oldest, parades his sons in front of the prophet Samuel, who, at God’s instructions, is looking for the next king. When Samuel sees Eliab, the eldest, he says, “Yep. That’s our man!” You’d think Samuel would have known better than that.

Samuel was looking at his height and appearance, which was precisely what Saul had going for him, as Saul stood head and shoulders above anyone else (1 Sam. 10:23). But God had to remind 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.” So Samuel continued down the line of Jesse’s sons.

When the seventh son appears, and Samuel still has no instructions from the Holy Spirit, he begins to think something is wrong. So he says to Jesse, “Hey. Are you sure these are all the sons you have?” Seven sons because seven is the number of perfection. This was the perfect lineup. Who could ask for more? Well, Samuel asks for more. And Jesse, scratching his beard, says, “Oh yeah. I got one more. Forgot all about him. He’s the youngest, and all he’s good for is tending the sheep.” The eighth son. Of course, he was the eighth son, for the number eight is the number of completion, superabundance, and a new beginning.

Of course, when David does appear, the Lord says, “This is the one; anoint him.” You see, even when your family forgets you, even when your dad doesn’t invite you to the party, when the greatest prophet of our times comes to your house, God remembers you. We see two things happening here: God doesn’t forget who you are and sees what others don’t.

The world is all about having the right look, sufficient degrees, and who you know, all of which make you famous and acceptable. Of course, this attitude isn’t something new. When Paul was in Corinth, he knew he had to teach Jewish and Gentile Corinthians. The Jews there were looking for a miracle, for a sign that proved he had the power of God. They wanted the same thing from Jesus. The Greeks, however, were looking at surface impressions. They weren’t as concerned with their inner life as they were with brains and beauty. However, Paul refutes both these attitudes in his letter to the Corinthians. He says, “God selected the common and the castoff, whatever lacks status, so He could invalidate the claims of those who think those things are significant. So, it makes no sense for anyone to boast in God’s presence” (1 Cor. 1:29).

When the whole world is enamored with power, beauty, strength, and royalty, it takes a humble spirit to answer the call of God. Everyone in Israel would compare little David to big Saul, who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. But God makes His choices differently from the way people make their choices. We chose the rich and famous to be our friends because it might make us into somebody admired by the world. But God chooses nobodies and makes them into somebodies.

Furthermore, God didn’t choose a person from the priestly tribe, which is what we would do. Most church members think you must find a minister if you want to get something done in the Kingdom. Get the pastor involved. He’s special. He has a title. He knows. But then you read about the people who made a difference in the world, and most of the time, they are people without ministerial credentials but full of love and the Holy Spirit. Regular people. Sinful people. Earthy people. You know, the ones Jesus identifies with.

David reminds us that God uses our everyday selves to serve Him. Thinking of all the ways we are weak should humble us, but God's miraculous grace shines best in that weakness. Question: Who is the most humble person you know?

3. Integrity. Psalm 78:71-72 says of David, “From caring of the ewes, who gently nurse their young, He called him to shepherd His people Jacob and to look after Israel, His inheritance. David shepherded them with the honor and integrity of his heart; he led them in wisdom and strong and skillful hands” (The Voice). Did you get that? With the honor and integrity of his heart, David cared for his people. It comforts me that God isn’t looking for the spectacular among us. He’s looking for down-to-earth spirituality that is humble enough to know they are nothing without God and have the honesty and integrity to stay faithful to their Lord.

Integrity means complete, whole, innocent, sound, unimpaired. It is deep down in your soul, honest. It is the quality that makes you completely reliable to do your job even when your boss isn’t watching. It is the quality that encourages you to do your best even if you aren’t getting paid. It is the quality that helps others know that your word is your bond!

This was the heart of David. True, we later find out his actions weren’t always noble, and sometimes his sin caused the death of others, but when he was confronted, he never blamed someone else. Integrity says, “The cause of my sin stops here with me.” When Samuel confronted Saul with not obeying the Lord, Saul said, “I have disobeyed your instructions and the LORD’S commands, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded” (1 Sam. 15:24). That’s not a confession; it an accusation against others. When Nathan confronted David with the sin of taking Bathsheba and having her husband killed, David didn’t add to his confession but simply said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam. 12:13). That is integrity.

To be a person after God’s heart, you need to have an honest, genuine spirituality, you need to be humble with who you are in God’s sight, and you need to have integrity in your heart. And these things don’t happen overnight. Alan Redpath said, “The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment; the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime.” God is never in a hurry when he develops people after His own heart. It is a life-long process. Are you in it for life?

Question: Who is the most integrous person you know?