The life of David makes for a fascinating character study. His is one of those great “rags to riches” stories. David started out a shepherd boy and ended up as a king. He became a great warrior and consolidated the tiny nation of Israel into a powerful kingdom that ruled a large part of the Middle East during the tenth century B.C.
But even with all these accomplishments, David’s greatest claim to fame, so to speak, is God’s epitaph, “I have found David… a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). And yet, I find this statement perplexing! God is declaring His approval of David’s heart and life. That is puzzling in light of the fact that David’s actions weren’t always godly.
And yet God states, “I have found David… a man after my own heart.” How can that be? How could God possibly commend a man with a checkered history?
Yes, David was a man with feet of clay, a man who at times committed sins that most of us could not imagine, let alone commit. Yet, over the long haul, David sought to be righteous and his heart’s desire was to do God’s will. This is the kind of man God looks for, as indicated by Jeremiah 5:1-9. God doesn’t expect perfection, as we can clearly see from David. With the many wrongs David committed in his life, God could still look at David’s heart and declare him a man after His own heart—a man who did all God’s will.
This, my friend, is the grace of God! You may imagine that being a man after God’s own heart is too lofty a goal, or it’s not possible because of some of your past actions. But God looks into your heart too. When it comes to becoming a man after God’s own heart, you can count on the grace of God—a grace that enables you and strengthens you at all times.
Read From Jim’s Heart to Men After God’s Own Heart The Enabling Grace of God on Elizabeth & Jim George.