EmmDev 2024-08-15 [The Discipleship Journey] It's the HEART that counts

It's the HEART that counts

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (1Samuel16:7)

Samuel had a tough task to perform. He had to anoint a king to replace King Saul. God sent him to the Jesse's family. Jesse had eight sons and one of them was to be the king. Samuel was afraid for his life - if Saul found out about this there would be trouble. Samuel was also afraid of the people - they wanted a king and Saul had been an impressive choice initially. Saul was a head taller than anyone else and from a military perspective he had started well. So when Jesse's first son, tall, handsome, and first-born was paraded before Samuel, we cannot blame him for thinking This must be the one!

But God's ways are never our ways. While we are distracted and waylaid by worldly standards and criteria and measures of success, God looks at the heart. David had a heart after the heart of God (1Sam13:14). And here it is confirmed: David's control centre (how the Hebrew people understood heart) was beating to please God.

We get this wrong so often!
Moses, standing at the burning bush, was worried about his speaking ability.
Abraham was worried that he was beyond child-making age.
And you and I feel that we haven't studied or learned enough or that we don't deserve to be used by God.

Today we have to be power-dressers to impress people. Business executives are supposed to drive cars that suit their images. We would have been shocked at David. David was the opposite of impressive. He is described as a good looking boy who wasn't even shaving yet and was left to the sheep because no-one considered him as a serious contender yet. Samuel had to learn that in God's books it is not qualification that matters, but an attitude of dedication. He had to train himself to look at the world through God's eyes where the impressive ones and the significant ones don't always look that way!

And in the very next chapter of the first book of Samuel, David - the runt of the litter - kills a giant with a child's weapon.

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