A man after God's Own Heart: A Great Example to Follow!

Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.(Psalm 143:10)

I have always appreciated the psalms but after reading through them very recently, just them and nothing else, I recognized a beauty in them, a certain speech and way of speaking to God that I myself was lacking. In them, I saw their writers pouring out their hearts to God unabashedly. I saw them seeking him, desiring him, and what impressed me the most was their apparent devotion to Him, his ways, commands, and his will for their lives. In the psalms I found me whose examples I realized I desperately need to follow; at the top of that list was the only man to ever have the distinction of being called “a man after God’s Heart.”

As I was reading Psalm 143, a psalm of David, his request in verse 10 stuck out to me and showed me something that I truly needed to be seeking from the Lord. Teach me to you your will, for you are my God… These words, I realized were ones that had been missing from my prayers. Yes, I had been praying for strength and guidance. I’d been praying for God to soften my heart in areas where it was needed. I’d been praying for the plight of others who had asked me to pray for them, but in all this, as I searched my memory, I could not recall having asked God, my God, to teach me to do his well.

I’m not saying that I haven’t ever prayed this prayer. I’m saying that I couldn’t remember having prayed it and to me that’s the same as not having prayed it at all. See, what I realized is that doing God’s will is not something I can learn on my own or do own my own. It is something that I have to be taught by God himself and then it’s something that I have to allow the Holy Spirit to effectuate within me.

This has to be a genuine desire I possess. It has to be something I seek frim the Lord daily, earnestly and sincerely, as David, the man after God’s own heart did. So today I will make following this example, the one set forth by the man who gave us example upon example of how to interact with our God, a part of my daily life. Today and every day after today, regardless of whatever else may be on my prayer list, the petition at the top of it will be a request for God to teach me to do his will.

And I encourage anyone who realizes that they are lacking in this area to join me. The reality is we need to be taught how to do the will of God and the things we are taught we need to apply to our lives. We could sit for hours and talk about David, discussing the life he lived for God, admiring his strength, confidence and dedication to his God, but what good is that really doing us if we won’t also follow the example he put forth? So today, let us follow the example of not only David, but every mighty man and woman of God the Bible tells us about.

Prayer of the day: Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Teach us, dear Lord, to not only know your will but to want to do it. Fill us with your Spirit and help us to listen for your word and your will in our lives this day and every day. Amen.