"Now devote your heart and soul to seeking your God." -- 1 Chronicles 22:19
I love when my Bible study lesson is about David because I can always seem to identify with him. "The man after God's own heart"...he was a very HUMAN God lover...and God seeker. He was very passionate about things and yet he made some very BIG mistakes in his life. Even at his lowest though, he never gave up on God. He never lost his faith in the God of his heart.
David WANTED to be the one to build a temple to God...honoring and housing the God who had kept his promises to David and to Israel. He was excited by the prospect of building this elaborate and ornate temple! But, God had other plans. He told David that it would be his son who would build the temple, not him. When he found this out, David went to the Lord and prayed...he thanked God and praised him and asked that He continue to do as he had promised. Then, as his son grew and matured, David helped in the process by gathering supplies and people to help his son in the building. He also talked with his son, Solomon, and and encouraged him. He prayed over his son and asked that God bless him with discretion and understanding and reminded Solomon that it was GOD who was behind these plans, so he shouldn't be afraid or discouraged in the process. (1 Chronicles 22)
I'm sure that David was disappointed that it was not he who would build the temple. He wanted to honor the God who saved him over and over again in the biggest way he could imagine! It was pride...pride in what God had done for him, and pride in what he had become in his life through God. But, David knew that he had to follow the Lord's leading. So, he did the best next thing, and helped and prepared his son for this task instead. David was ALWAYS seeking the Lord with all his heart! He didn't ALWAYS follow the right path, but he never lost sight of God. If we read the Psalms, we can see where his heart was. When he was happy about something, he praised (and sometimes danced!) and thanked the Lord. When he was angry, he prayed and asked God questions. When he was afraid, he went to God for comfort and protection. When he made a mistake, he humbled himself and asked for forgiveness.
2 Chronicles 7:14-15 says, "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land."
What if we followed David's leadings? What if we went to God about every problem, every emotion and every situation that occurred in our lives? What if we were to seek God with all of our hearts? If we did this, we would let go so some of the pride that we hang on to...we would HUMBLE ourselves and realize that our ways are not God's ways.
If you believe in God, if you search for him, then you are called by him. You are his people. You can help prepare the land for God's promises in the future. You can do as David did for Solomon, even if you don't have a son. There are many in our land who have not heard their calling...they don't know or believe in God. We can't really even blame them for their wicked ways, because they don't know the right way in their hearts. What we can do is pray. We can humble ourselves, turn from our own mistakes, and pray for our forgiveness. We can pray for the people who haven't heard the call from God yet. God promises that if we seek his face, then he will hear our prayers and he will forgive our sin and heal our land.
Don't you think our land and our world need a little healing right now? Instead of blaming each other for how bad our country is, or how bad the world is...let's try praying. Pray that God will keep his promises and that he will forgive and heal our land and our world. That might sound like a lame way of trying to save the world...but it worked for David! I want to be a woman after God's own heart!
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