Everything

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

EVERYTHING

Acts 13:20-22

"After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. He 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.'

NIV

Here again we see the people wanting what the world around them has, a king. God had determined he wanted to have men, who were called judges to rule over the people after the death of Joshua, mainly because they were forgetting him and turning to the gods of the culture around them. But after a while these people wanted kings instead, so they could be more like the culture around them. This in itself could be our life lesson. Do we really want to live as God desires us, or do we want to live like the culture around us? Yet there is another truth in the section of history that Paul is telling his audience. When he says that God testified that David was a man after his own heart, he included that he will do everything I want him to do. Now we certainly know David was no angel, in fact, he did one really sinful act with Bathsheba and the events that followed. But it is not the perfection of humanity which God the reason God testified concerning David. It is the fact David will do everything God wants him to do. It is not the lists of don’t that God is so concerned with here, but the list of do’s. God knows we cannot be perfect in our conduct, which is why he sent Jesus to be our Savior. Only God can be perfect in conduct, we cannot and will not ever be perfect in our conduct, as we are but sinners saved by grace. Yet it is that which God wants us to do is what makes us people after his own heart. David was passionate about God, when we see the faith of David we see a man who believed the Lord, who trusted in him, who had a reputation of believing God. From the time he defeated Goliath, in the name of the Lord, to when he danced naked before the returning Ark of the Covenant, David showed people he loved God. Yes, he was a flawed man, who sinned against God as well. This is our story, we have sinned against God, more often than we should, yet we still should have a heart for God. When David was confronted about his sin, he cried out in anguish, I have sinned against the Lord. Yes, he had to live with the consequences of his sin, but still God did not take back his testimony of David. We can learn from this also. We might have to live with the consequences of our sin, but that does not negate his testimony about us. Are we a person after his own heart? Will we do everything he wants us to do? Will we fight the battles against the goliaths in our life in the name of the Lord? Will we worship him, truly dance before him naked, if not in the physical, at least in our hearts, no matter what people think of us? This could also apply to how we live. Do we live like the culture around us, or do we live as God desires us to live, no matter what people think. Living the way God wants us to live would apply to doing everything he wants us to do. Adopting the philosophies of the world around us would constitute an act of rebellion, an act of adultery. Could the product of that adultery be taken away, as God took the son from David? It is something to think about, but the truth of the matter is that we should be the people God desires us to be, doing everything he wants us to do, everything.