Month: September 2024

1 Samuel 16:18 (LSB) 18 Then one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one who is understanding in speech, and man of fine form; and Yahweh is with him.”

The life of David would be perfect for a case study of someone used by God for his qualities, and despite his faults.

He is an example of someone who loved God, working diligently to do what was right and honorable in His eyes.

The verse above listed David’s attributes; skillful musician, a man of valor, a warrior, sensible, physically attractive.

And finally, it was said that God’s presence was with him.

As I have recently been working my way through 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel again, I have been paying close attention specifically to David and the things he did.

He was truly a man after God’s heart. An honorable man who, despite being a warrior, also displayed God’s mercy and compassion toward Saul, who had tried to kill him numerous times.

On multiple occasions, David had opportunities to easily kill Saul. But he refused to do so, knowing that Saul was anointed by God as Israel’s king.

Seeing this really impacted me and got me thinking. It caused me to examine myself and ask if I would have been able to do the same had I been in David’s shoes at those moments.

And it caused me to ask God to continue to do a work in my heart and life, transforming me more each day as I surrender myself to Him, that I might be as David was; a man after God’s own heart.

May we all have a heart like David’s, wanting to please God and bring glory and honor to His name in all we do, even despite ourselves.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

This is the greatest commandment of all.

It should get our full attention.

And it should be where we put our greatest efforts.

All else comes after this. For if we get this right, many other things will fall into place in our lives.

With that said, we need to look at some of the ways this is overlooked and improperly prioritized.

Humanity has a sin problem. We wrestle with lust, fornication, drunkenness, pride, thievery, etc.

We fight loneliness, anger, bitterness, and we hold grudges. We struggle with forgiving others.

And then one day someone tells us that God is the solution to these things. And they are correct. He is.

But if we pursue a relationship with God solely to ask Him to fix our problems, we are in it for the wrong reasons. We have a mistaken perspective.

Our pursuit of God should be for who He is, seeking forgiveness and the redemption of our sinful selves, not just for Him to fix our problems.

When we pursue Him with mistaken motives, our relationship with Him is doomed to failure before it even starts.

Why?

Because if we go to Him looking only for solutions to our problems, and those solutions fail to come, or come more slowly than we hoped for, many will walk away claiming that “it didn’t work” for them.

But when we seek Him for who He is, learning to love Him more than life itself, He will help us overcome our sin in ways that defies human understanding and logic.

And our lives will be transformed because He is moving and working in us as we draw near to Him and seek Him with our whole heart.

It all comes down to having the right motives and the proper perspective. And as our love for Him grows, and we learn to fully surrender to Him, He will begin to set us free from the things that had held us captive for so long.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page.