Have you had
times in your life when it feels like you are in a “weary wilderness”? Times when you desired to hear a word from
the Lord that would encourage you and brighten your spirit?
David knew these times all too well when
being pursued by King Saul, David knew that he had been anointed to become the future
King of Israel, but King Saul became a test for David’s soul.
God wasn’t
proving David’s heart so that He could demonstrate what kind of man David would
become, God knew what David would become, but David didn’t know.
David’s heart needed to be revealed, God was
after a softness, a tenderness within David that could only be exposed
when he was being pursued by King Saul.
King Saul
was the first anointed King of Israel, young Saul was chosen by God to rule over God’s
inheritance which is His people. The prophet
Samuel was given words of knowledge to give Saul when Saul was searching for his
family’s lost donkeys in 1 Samuel 9. God changed the heart of young Saul to hear God’s word which when he became king led to many
victorious battles against the Philistines and other enemies who set themselves
against Israel.
However, as King, Saul had a flaw
that was revealed which was a selfish and prideful heart. As God tried Saul’s heart to see if Saul
would fully obey, Saul would compromise and look for ways to personally benefit
himself from God’s victories in his life, and the end result is he was rejected
by God as being King of Israel.
David was raised up in the shadow of King Saul, he was a young shepherd boy who was
anointed by Samuel to be the next King.
God took a different approach with David, God didn’t choose the tallest and
most handsome to be the next king, God chose the smallest (the runt) from
his family of origin, and instead of being a fighter (the most skillful in
battle) God chose a boy with a heart filled with music, songs, and praise
for the God of Israel. God was raising
up a new type of King who had a heart of love for the Lord. God was after David’s heart and his affections
rather than just skill and stature.
The passage
above says that David was “lovesick” for the “God of my life”,
even as Saul’s soldiers were camped against David to capture him and bring him
to Saul for incarceration because of Saul’s jealousy of David, David took
solace in his desire for God’s presence.
David
declares “I thirst with the deepest longings to love you more”, he wasn’t
satisfied with just knowing about God, he wanted a deep interpersonal
relationship with the Lord which was more about what God wanted with
David. David was connecting with the
heart of God for himself, he recognized that this desire for God was not
created by his effort alone, this was something that God had put into David’s heart from God Himself, for God was revealing Himself to David.
This is
the beauty of pursuing the Lord’s presence, as we ask Him to put His heart
within us, there is the desire that God places within us to pursue Him with cravings
which can’t be described, it is His love that woos us and draws us closer to
Him because the Lord is love and He cannot be fully described in words or
descriptions.
“Such yearning
grips my soul for you, my God!” David had a way with words that went
beyond description right to the very actions of the heart. He pursued God like a lover who had been captured
by the affections of one who is the object of his desires.
God still
pursues us today with that same affection which goes beyond our natural experience
into an awareness which is just as real, just as passionate, and just as
powerful as a natural love. This is called
the love of God.
There is a Greek
word which describes this most fully, it is the “agapē" love of
God.
“Within Christianity, agapē is
considered to be the love originating from God or Christ for humankind. In the New Testament, it refers to the
covenant love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God;
the term necessarily extends to the love of one's fellow man.” Wikipedia
This agapē love is deeply benevolent and caring, it reaches beyond natural boundaries and can even be said to be spiritual in is depth and scope. In describing love in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul describes agapē love that is beyond human expression and only comes from the abiding presence of God residing within a person that God has encountered.
What is God revealing about your heart so that He can become closer to you? We all have “King Sauls’” in our lives which pursue us and seek our demise, these things can be anything that causes us to compromise the command of the Lord in our lives in ways that seem right at the time, but are contrary to what the Lord has already spoken to us.
What is God revealing about your heart so that He can become closer to you? We all have “King Sauls’” in our lives which pursue us and seek our demise, these things can be anything that causes us to compromise the command of the Lord in our lives in ways that seem right at the time, but are contrary to what the Lord has already spoken to us.
You can rationalize it all you want
and justify the path of error you
have chosen,
but you’ll find out in the end that
you took the road to destruction. Proverbs 14:12 (TPT)
God is after
a heart that is dedicated to obeying the word of the Lord in spite of our own wants
or desires. God wants a heart that can
receive His love and reflect it back to Him in ways that change us into
becoming God lovers and desiring nothing else but more of Him in our lives.
That is the fringe benefit of truly pursuing God, we become insatiable for more of Him and desire Him more than any other thing, nothing compares to the love of God.
Be Blessed;
Stephen
Barnett
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