Acts 13:21-22 ESV
“Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’”
As I read these two verses I sensed the Lord stopping me
here to consider what it means to be a person after God’s own heart who will do
all his will.
So, I asked myself, “What does God’s heart look like?” Well,
we know God is holy, he is righteous, he is just, he is loving, he is merciful,
he is gracious, he makes judgments, he is truthful, he is faithful, he is
morally pure, he is compassionate, he is kind, he is perfect, he disciplines
those he loves, and he corrects us, yet he does not forsake those who are truly
his, etc. And I am certain that many of you could add to this list what you see
in God.
So, if we, as followers of Christ, are going to be people of
God after God’s own heart, who are eager to do all his will, what should that
look like?
First of all we must believe in Jesus Christ with God-given
and God-persuaded faith in Jesus. And this faith is not some emotional decision
nor is it some intellectual assent to who Jesus is and to what he did for us in
dying on that cross for our sins. It is also not some religious ritual nor some
formula that we follow and then someone tells us that we are now in the family
of God and all our sins are forgiven and heaven is now guaranteed us no matter
what.
For this faith that is required for salvation is authored
and perfected by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2), it is gifted to us by God, and
it is not of our own doing (Ephesians 2:8-10). And it is divinely persuaded of
God, and we can’t even come to faith in Christ unless God the Father first
draws us to Christ (John 6:44). So, since God is all those traits listed above,
and more, he is not going to gift us with a faith, and he is not going to
persuade us to believe with a faith that does not honor him as Lord and submit
to his will.
So, since this faith in the Lord Jesus comes from God and is
gifted to us by God, and it is God-persuaded faith, and it is not of our own
doing, then it is going to take on the character of God. So, it is going to be a
faith that is submissive to Christ as Lord, that is surrendered to God to do
his will, that is committed to the service of the Lord, that is obedient to his
commands (New Covenant), and that is devoted to holy and godly living, to the
glory and praise of God, and in his strength and wisdom and power.
Thus, when we believe in Jesus with this God-given faith, we
are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk
in newness of life in him, no longer to live our lives as slaves to sin, but
now to live our lives as slaves of God and of his righteousness. And our heart’s
desire now is to do his will and to obey his commands (New Covenant), because
we love him. And because we love him we want to serve him, we want to obey him,
and we desire to do his will, and we no longer want to fight against him.
And this describes a person after God’s own heart who will
do all his will and who will not resist him nor deny him nor forsake him. This
doesn’t mean we are perfect people, though, but it does mean we are no longer
walking in sin, deliberately and habitually sinning against our Lord and against
other people. But we are people of God who are following him in obedience, who
want to obey him and who are not looking for wiggle room to find a way around having
to obey him. For our desire is for him to do his will. Amen!
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth
for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my
strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
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