Victory in Your HeartSample

Victory In Your Heart – Be Like David

“And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’”

- Acts 13:22 NKJV emphasis added

One of our goals in life should be to have a heart like God's. When we have this, we will

• See life the way God sees it
• Respond to problems in a healthy manner
• Love people the way God does (or at least try to)

As a result, our lives will be better. However, to develop our hearts to be like God’s, we must guard what we allow in our hearts.

“Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.”

- Proverbs 4:23 GW

Through the second half of the book of 1 Samuel, we see that a king named Saul is trying to kill David. Saul sent thousands of people after David and his men, with instructions to kill them all.

In the middle of this season of David’s life, an opportunity arose for David to take things into his own hands and kill Saul. Even the men that were with David said that it was a sign from the Lord to deliver himself.

Think about it. King Saul is trying to KILL David! Many of us today would have taken this opportunity to defend ourselves, and in the eyes of man, justifiably so. However, David saw a man anointed by God more than a man that was trying to kill him. This doesn’t happen without guarding your heart.

Imagine what the men were saying to David …

• “He is trying to kill you, why wouldn’t you defend yourself?”
• “Remember the Lord said He would deliver our enemies into our hands?”
• “Clearly, this must be the next step for you to become king!”

But look at how David responded…

“And he said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.’”

- 1 Samuel 24:6 NKJV

David didn’t act on those thoughts. He guarded his heart against them. David still respected Saul as king despite the fact that Saul made David’s life harder than it should have been.

We need to be like David. We need to guard our hearts. This is one step towards having a heart that is after God’s heart, just like David had. Maybe we don’t have someone that is sending thousands of people to kill us, but there are people that are trying to hurt us in different ways.

Let’s guard our hearts and respond with the love of God. Pray for people who seek to hurt us, bless them, and let’s not take matters into our own hands. Let’s allow God to be the One to raise us to the places that He has for us. Let’s not do it ourselves.

Confession Today

“God chose David because he had a heart after God’s heart. I will develop my heart to do the same. I will guard my heart above anything else because life flows out of my heart. No matter what anyone else may do to me, I will not allow other people’s opinions to get in my heart. I will protect it so that I can accomplish the will of God for my life.”