Acts 13.
20 After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they asked for a king. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will
The Lord chose David because of the attitude of his heart.
Before the Lord commits himself to a person, he first probes his heart.
Saul was the first king, and he was supposed to lead God’s people according to the Lord’s way. Yet he did things that were contrary to God and led the people according to his own desires.
Saul was disqualified because he sought the acclaim of men. When the Lord calls us to serve Him, we must do so according to His instructions.
As a child of God, we must expect the Lord’s guidance at every point. The Holy Spirit is not only there for prayer, but also to help us manage our lives, our homes, our finances, our present and future, our schedules…
The Lord searches man’s heart before entrusting him with a mission.
What did David do to gain God’s approval?
God looked, searching from family to family in Israel, before stopping in Isaiah’s family and finding David.
1/ David had faith in God.
He heard God’s story and believed. He didn’t know Moses, Caleb or Joshua.
He just listened to his father. In those days, there was no Bible. They just had the tablets of the Ten Commandments. And they weren’t even accessible to everyone. But David knew how to pay attention to what he had heard from the Lord. He thus built a communion with God.
Today, many Christians are not paying attention. They listen to the Word like news, and don’t experience the Lord who is present with everyone.
But faith and actions are linked. Once God has spoken, it means He is in action. Thus, we must have an active faith for God.
God’s Word is alive; we need to grasp it quickly and act on it. [Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and powerful, …]
2/ David was always at work. He was interested in God.
When he was in his father’s house, his presence or absence wasn’t even noticeable. But he took care of his father’s sheep, for his father’s sake. He did this without complaining about his other brothers.
So much so that even when the prophet Samuel arrived, he wasn’t even called, yet even his brothers, who were soldiers, came to this appointment.
Just as David served his father, God saw in him that he would serve Him in this way and even more.
Beloved, we must work for the Lord without interest, out of love.
3/ David had a spirit of sacrifice.
David sacrificed himself to tend his father’s flocks. And it was in this spirit of sacrifice that he also sought God’s interest.
Goliath was a spirit who was there to frustrate God’s people. And only David decided to take on Goliath. Yet David was not in the army, even his brothers were soldiers, but the whole army was afraid of Goliath.
David with the spirit of sacrifice, the faith in his heart, he sought that God be glorified.
And so he confronted Goliath. And God acted. It wasn’t David who overcame Goliath, but God through him.
It was the attitude of his heart that made this possible.
When the Lord approves your heart, He will allow your enemies to bow down before you. Many have sought to destroy David, but never succeeded.
4/ David had a heart of love.
A heart that pleases God is not selfish.
Beloved, we need to look at what we need to do to please God, and this, every day. And with zeal and love.
David composed songs. Even in adversity, he saw God in his heart and spoke to Him. Without complaint, he goes into God’s presence.
It’s hard to find someone who will stand up for God like David, Joshua, Abraham…
Abraham agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his only desire being to please God.
We must always love God first and give Him priority. You must love God more than yourself. God’s love is like a magnet that draws you to God: you always want to come into His presence with eagerness and zeal.
When the Christian has a heart for God, he doesn’t need to be pushed to pray, to meditate, to intercede, to do the things of God. He doesn’t even need encouragement to go evangelizing…. It’s all written in him.
Many Christians today don’t have time for God. They don’t evangelize. Beloved, the heart must change. You must surrender your heart to God.
David could never have defeated Goliath. But because he had God’s love in his heart, God allowed him to triumph.
Beloved, the day you begin to develop the love of God in your heart, and make your home a sanctuary for encounters with God, then you will see the power of God. You will destroy the Goliaths of your marriage, your home and even your church…Just as God used David to deliver all Israel.
As children of God, we must follow God’s instructions, we must be docile, we must embody humility; And we must always be at the Lord’s service. For when you are a Christian, you are anointed for the Lord.
Beloved, your heart is the place to meet God, the place of glory.