David: A Man After God's Own Heart

A college student had two problems common to many: low grades and no money. Knowing that her parents wouldn’t look kindly on her dilemma she devised an ingenious plan to soften the blows of reality and wrote this letter:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Just thought I’d drop you a note to let you know how I’m doing. I’ve fallen in love with a guy named Flick. He dropped out of school after the 9th grade, but has a really good job as a bouncer at a bar. He’s teaching me to ride his Harley and next week we’re going to get matching tattoos. We’ve been going steady for the past two months and plan on getting married in the fall. At any rate, I’ve dropped out school but plan on going back after the baby comes.

On the next page she continued:

Mom and Dad, I just want you to know that everything I just told you is absolutely false, none of it is true. However, I did get a C in French, flunked math and I could use some more money. Love JoAnn

As a parent, I don’t know if I’d hug her or “I won’t even go there.”

Even bad news can sound like good news if it is seen from a particular vantage point. So much of what we face in life depends on “where we’re coming from” as we face circumstances. The secret of course is perspective.

Perspective? The term literally means to see things as they really are, to objectively assess a situation in light of its comparative importance.

So let’s get some perspective. Let me ask you, “How does God perceive you, I mean, how does He see you?” Does He simply tolerate you or just put up with you?

Does God love you?

If so, how much does He love you and what does He expect in return?

Many Christians have convoluted perspectives of how God sees them and what He desires of them.

As a result, many Christians approach God like our college coed who tried too bring her dilemma into perspective before dumping a dose of reality on her parents.

The reality is that God already knows our perspective. He knows who we are, what we’ve done or not done and He still loves us. And it’s not a matter of getting on His good side or warming Him up before we “drop the bomb”. The Lord loves us and He wants us to love Him in return. And when we rest in His unfailing love for us something wonderfully miraculous begins to take place.

We begin to be transformed by His love and a hunger begins to rumble within us to know Him more and to be more like Him.

Not out of compulsion or force, but out of a deep longing. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 3: 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord.

Unveiled faces! No facades, no veneers, no outward show of public image, no politicking or appeasing, but unvarnished, with no pretense, posturing or posing to be something other than what we are.

When we understand that the Lord desires for us to come to Him with “unveiled faces,” completely open, honest, and unvarnished before Him, a wonderful transformation begins to take place and we begin to see things as they really are. We begin to comprehend how much the Lord loves us and that He is in the process of transforming us into His image. That because He loves us, He doesn’t want to leave us the way we are, but transform us into what He desires us to be. That’s perspective!

But if we don’t understand that, we can loose all perspective and begin to see the Lord as a harsh task master who desires to see us perform like a dancing bear either in the pulpit or pew. It’s all a matter of perspective.

David was called a man after God’s own heart! And he was called this not because he was without error or because he got it all right, because we all know he didn’t. What made David a man after God’s own heart was PERSPECTIVE! He saw things as they really were and objectively assessed his situation in light of its comparative importance.

As a young man, David was viewed by others as having limited potential and promise and looked like anything but a king. In fact, David wasn’t even in the running for the position. When the prophet Samuel arrived at Jesse’ house, David’s father, to anoint one of his boys as king, Jesse lined up every one of his boys except David. Jesse didn’t see David having a lick of potential so he didn’t even bother to call him in from the fields to be considered by Samuel.