After God’s Heart

    A friend and minister friend of mine recently posted on his social media:
            “Men who hunger for the word of God are Men who are truly after God’s heart.”
    Man, I felt that. When I first read it, I got really excited. I love the Word of God, and as many of you know, I quote it all the time. One of my greatest passions in life is to help others fall in love with the Word of God, and I always have this hope that whomever I talk with will desire to feast on the Word. But then, after thinking a little bit on this post, I realized how wrong it really is… bear with me.
            “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” 1 Samuel 13:14
                “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” Acts 13:22
    You see, David was the man after God’s own heart, but David did not hunger for the Word of God. His hunger was to be close to God, and even more he desired greatly to bless God. David cared about God’s will, especially God’s secret desires. He got so close to God that he discovered God’s secret desire for His people to build Him a permanent dwelling place so they could worship Him 24/7. David went on to hire over 4000 musicians and singers to fill God’s house with worship (like it is in Heaven). That is what made David the man after God’s heart. NOT his love for scripture.
    I read the Word every day, sometimes for hours. I study it constantly, learning new revelations, seeking new, deeper understanding so that I can apply it better to my life. I am constantly opening my bible while in prayer for God to teach me something new. I don’t try to memorize scriptures, but instead I try to live it out. I want to learn how to be free from my old self, and I am always looking for new insight that will help me, as well as anyone else I meet. I, WE, need to have a deep hunger for the Word of God. It is essential to our Christian walk.
    But it will not make me a man after God’s heart. Only Worship can do that. The uncomfortable truth is that reading the Word of God guarantees us nothing for salvation. There are many people who read the Word daily that don’t know His voice. I have met atheists, and know of many from other religions that have memorized the entire bible, only to find errors and places where they can disprove Christianity. They have a deep hunger for the Word of God… but definitely don’t have or care about His heart, even denying Jesus completely.
   So yes, we have to have a deep, passionate hunger for the Word of God. But if you want to have a heart that pursues God, that blesses God, it won’t come from reading the Word. It only comes from Faith- because without faith it is impossible to please God. God wants us to be close to Him, not to follow Him or even to be consumed with obeying Him (as we learned the past few weeks).
   Isn’t it amazing to know that when Jesus called His twelve disciples He first and foremost anointed them to be with Him? That’s found in Mark 3:14. God just wants us to be with Him. What do we do when we are with God? We worship Him. Everyone who gets close to God (or even His angels) in the Word immediately bow down in worship. So, I hope that after you read this blog, you worship God. While you worship, I hope He encourages you to read your bible… but more than that, my biggest hope is that you simply get as close to God as you can.
Be blessed…

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