After

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

AFTER

Prov 21:2

2 All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.

NIV

We could approach this truth from two different views, but there is only one that matters. We might think we are doing everything according to the right way to live. We might believe we are being a “Good Christian” doing, “Good deeds” and such, but our heart is more about wanting people to think we are a “Good Christian”.  Do we look for the praise from men? This could be in our secular work. It could be in our circle of family and friends. It could be in our church community. Our ways, the way we live seems right to us. We are doing all the right things. We might be involved in some ministry. But God see into our heart, into our very core, the inner most part of our being, our thoughts and weights that portion of us, rather than the activity level of our lives. What motivates us to do whatever we do? Certainly being free of sin would seem to be a biblical principle worthy of striving for. Yet King David did not meet that criteria, yet God testified David was a man after God’s own heart.

1 Sam 13:13-14

13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD's command."

NIV

We also have this confirmed to us in the New Testament regarding the heart of David.

Acts 13:21-22

 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

The key here is that David will do everything God wants him to. God weighed David’s heart and found a man, not a perfect man, not the Messiah, but a man, with faults, with sin, but a man whose heart was seeking after the heart of God. Within the context of the original languages both Hebrew and Greek here, it would seem David did not have the same type of heart that God does, but that he was a man would sought after the heart of God, in order to do whatever God wanted him to do. David did not have the New Testament with all its teachings as to how to be a “Good Christian”.  He had a desire to know God. Yes, he was still a weak man, capable of yielding to temptations, but God weighed his heart and knew he would do whatever he wanted. Again a key for us. It is not about what we want to do, especially in the community of believers, but that also applies to every aspect of our lives. It does not matter how much we are doing “For the Lord” unless it is what he wants us to do. If we are to be people seeking after the heart of God, then we need to seek after his heart. What does he want us to do? It may not be anything that we are doing at this time. We might be doing what we want to do and thinking we are doing so much for God. Just because someone at church asks us to do something, or be involved in some ministry does not mean that is what God wants us to do. The point here is what is on our heart. Do we seek after the heart of God? Can God say about us that he has found a person after his own heart?