Man after God’s own Heart

Pastor Andre Mitchell

We are in the final week of the blog challenge. This has been an extremely enjoyable experience.  Sierra Nichole gave us our final topic to blog about.  “A Glimpse into the Person in the Bible you identify with the most and Why” So here I go.  Enjoy.

As you may have gathered by the title, I have chosen King David.  David’s life speaks to me.  I love this passage of scripture: But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, `I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13:22 NLT)

What an awesome testimony to have.  Interestingly, David did not say this about himself.  These were God’s words about David.  This was how God viewed him, and this is how I want God to view me.

There is much I can talk about with David.  I can pick out his loyalty to his sheep.  I can wax eloquent on how he stayed faithful to the cause even though he had a king’s anointing stuck in a shepherd’s position.  We can discuss his willingness to face giant problems when others were tucking their tails and ready to run.

We can talk about his fights, his poetry, his worship, his relationships, his love, his kindness, his anger, and his mistakes.  He is one of those Biblical characters that you can glean from, from now til eternity.  However this is just a blog, and we don’t have all day lol.

I can identify with David in many ways, but I want to go back to the aforementioned statement that God made of him “a man after God’s own heart”. This really speaks to me.  I see a duality in it that makes me want to lift it out above anything else where David is concerned.

The word “after” in the statement, to me, has a double meaning. I can buy a model car and easily tell that it is modeled after an original.  The Cadillac in the box is modeled after the Cadillac on the showroom floor.  The really well thought out model car has every detail so that it is a mirror image of the real car that it models.

David’s heart was molded so well after God’s heart that it modeled God’s heart. David allowed life’s circumstances to mold him toward God and not away from Him.  At the end of the day he had a heart that was modeled after God’s own heart.

Consequently, the word “after” has another meaning.  If I say the police are after me, we realize I am speaking of pursuit.  I believe David had a heart modeled after God’s heart because he stayed in pursuit of God.  In Psalm 42:1, the psalmist, compared the pursuit of God to a thirsty deer panting “after” a water-brook.  David was not perfect, but no matter what; he kept coming after God.  He came in worship, in praise, with sacrifices, through questionings, and even in repentance.  Nothing stopped him from his pursuit.

I identify with David because I want a heart like God’s.  I want a heart that forgives.  A heart that looks past other’s faults and sees their needs.  A heart that hates evil, and on and on.  Yet, the only way I can achieve this is to have my heart molded long enough so that it models God’s.  And the only way I can have a heart modeled after God’s is to keep a heart that pursues God.  In essence, I will only be a man after God’s own heart as long as I remain a man that is always after God’s heart.

Psalm 63:8 My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.

Random Thoughts

Pastor Andre Mitchell

I want to know Him more.  If church as normal is all I am going to get, then I will be a man most miserable.  I want to see Him.  See Him high and lifted up.  See Him manifesting Himself throughout the land.  I want everyone to know when He is in the room, from the smallest infant to the most seniored person.  It is only in Him that we will live and move and have our beings.  Christ in us is our hope of Glory.  He is our risen Savior, shouldn’t He be rising up in us.  At the grocery store, I want people to recognize Him with me.  In the schools, I want our youth to exude His presence.  Over the telephone, let His presence be known.  In the autum breezes, let us hear His voice.  May He become so real to us in this season, that moments devoid of Him become gut wrenching.  May we hunger for His word like it’s our necessary food.  May we rather starve then be out of His will.  May we cling to his promises like the dear pants for water.  May we go to sleep talking to him and wake up finishing the conversation.  May purity and holiness be our automatic response to His goodness.  May the poor see that we care.  May the sinner feel loved by us and not condemned, may he be convicted and desire to know the man from Galilee.  May we remember He is no longer the baby in the manger, or just the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, but He is now the Lion of the tribe of Judah longing to make His triumphant return.  Oh how I long to see religion driven Christianity die so relationship driven Christianity will live.  I will see it, in my lifetime.  I will see the church becoming all that she is destined to be, and I promise to let it first start within me.  Shalom. Selah.