After God’s Own Heart

The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians:
…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Does that Scripture reflect what you want for your children or would you rather that your child be a star?

“I didn’t make it as a celebrity, but my child can.”

“Come on, honey, Daddy wants you to be a success.”

Would you honestly say from the heart to your child, “Make it your ambition to live a quiet life and work with your hands?”

“I was hoping my child wouldn’t have to work with his hands. He has delicate hands. Maybe we can compromise; he’d be a good pianist.”

I would submit to you that many of us grew up in a culture saturated with the wrong value system. We have placed a premium on a lot of stuff that handicaps our children, our ministries, and us, because far too often we tend to value what the world values and not what God values. Many times I have gone to the Scriptures and been astounded by the fact that God’s strategy is the opposite of what mine would be.

God wants to start a new nation, so He picks a childless couple and makes them wait until they are beyond any hope of having children, and then He gives Abraham and Sarah their son, Isaac. I wouldn’t have done it like that. If I were trying to start a new nation, I would have picked a young, fertile couple.

Doesn’t my strategy make more sense to you?

God wants to bring His people out of bondage, so He picks a guy with a speech impediment named Moses to be His spokesman. God waits to call him until he’s eighty-years-old and has a criminal record. I wouldn’t have done it that way. In fact, I would have advised God against the whole plan.

God wants a king who can lead His people in triumph over their enemies, so God picks a shepherd boy who seems so insignificant that when it was time to call all the sons to dine with the prophet, David wasn’t invited. I wouldn’t have picked David, but God said to Samuel, Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

David was “a man after God’s own heart.”

In the gospels, we read a cast of all the celebrities, all the big shots, all the powerful. Then, we read, … the word of God came to John… in the desert. (Luke 3:2)

Why didn’t God send his Word to one of the important people? These people were in positions of power and influence. If God had sent his Word to them, they could have done something about it. But God said, “No, John the Baptist is my chosen forerunner. He’s going to introduce my son, Jesus.”

God is able to use you in this life to accomplish things you would never ever have imagined.