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Reading about David teaches us that God looks at the heart. We know David as a man of extraordinary courage and faith. He faced Goliath when everyone else was afraid. He trusted God to deliver him from the lion and the bear. Later, he would face enemies, danger and circumstances that would have overwhelmed many of us. So what was it about David’s heart that God saw?
David’s heart was fearless because of God. He knew God was powerful and able to deliver, and so when he knew God was with him, he could be totally fearless. But David was also deeply loving.
Before David ever faced Goliath, he was a shepherd. He loved and cared for his sheep. When a lion or a bear took one from the flock, David went after it. He was willing to put himself in danger to protect what had been entrusted to him. And we see that same heart when he arrives at the Israelite camp and hears Goliath defying the armies of Israel.
David cared. He cared about his people. He cared about his community. Most importantly, he cared about God and God’s honour within that community. He was loving, zealous and fearless.
Perhaps we sometimes separate these qualities when actually they belong together.
Fear naturally turns our attention towards ourselves. What will happen to me? Will I be safe? What if I fail? What if this costs me something? But love causes us to look beyond ourselves. David didn’t look at the sheep being attacked and think only about his own safety. When he heard Goliath defying Israel, he didn’t respond as someone simply trying to prove how brave he was.
He loved. And love gave him something worth being courageous for. That doesn’t mean David had confidence in his own strength. His confidence was in God. He knew who God was. He knew God was powerful and able to deliver him. His love and his faith worked together, so he was fearless because he loved.
God told Samuel:
‘People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’
1 Samuel 16:7
God could see something in David long before everybody else could. He saw his loving, zealous and fearless heart. David wasn’t perfect. His life would later make that abundantly clear. Being a person after God’s own heart therefore couldn’t have meant being a person who never failed. It was something deeper. David loved God. He praised Him. He trusted Him. He cared about what mattered to God. And he loved the people God had placed around him.
It makes me think differently about what we should be asking God to develop in us. We can ask for greater courage. We can ask for stronger faith. We can ask Him to use us powerfully. But perhaps underneath all of those prayers should be an even simpler one:
Lord, help me to grow in love.
Love for You. Love for the people around me. Love that cares enough to act. Love that trusts You enough not to be controlled by fear. There is nothing better we could seek, desire or do than to grow in love towards God and towards others.
Maybe one of the greatest things God could find when He looks at our hearts is exactly that. A heart that loves.
A Prayer
Father, when You look at my heart, would You find a heart that loves You. Help me to grow in love for You and for the people You have placed around me.
Give me a heart that cares about what You care about. Make me zealous for You, faithful with what You have entrusted to me and courageous when You ask me to act. Help me to know You more, so that my confidence is not in myself but in who You are and what You can do. Teach me to love so deeply that fear no longer determines what I will or will not do. Above everything else, help me to grow in love. Amen.
