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Men Reaching Men
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What Is your Heart's Desire?
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
When I was a young boy, my parents took me on our one and only family vacation. Leaving from my boyhood home of Miami, Oklahoma, we passed through Dodge City, Kansas, on our way to Colorado. And of course, we had to stop in this historic town and visit its famous Boot Hill Cemetery.
To this day I can still remember looking down at a tombstone with an inscription to this effect:
Here lies Old Joe.
He died with his boots on.
And at the end of the grave were two boots sticking up out of the Earth! Later I learned that " Old Joe" wasn't actually buried there. And much later I found out that the inscription on a grave marker is called an Epitaph, which is basically a short composition in prose or verse written as a tribute to a dead person.
Since that memorable visit to Boot Hill, I've collected a few other tributes. The epitaph that, to me, is the most inspiring of all (and also the most perplexing) is found written in the Bible. It's a tribute to King David, one of the most famous individuals in the Old Testament. of him God writes,
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
We can Learn from David
His is one of those great "rags to riches" stories. David started out a shepherd boy and ended up as a King. He became a great warrior and consolidated the tiny nation of Israel into a powerful kingdom that ruled a large part of the Middle East during the tenth century B.C
But with all his accomplishments, David's greatest claim to fame, so to speak, is God's epitaph, "I have found David...a man after my own heart." As I said earlier, I find this statement perplexing! God is declaring His approval of David's heart and life. That is puzzling in light of the fact that David's actions weren't always Godly. And yet God states, "I have found David...a man after my own heart." How can that be? How could God possibly commend a man with this Kind of background?
Yes, David was a man with feet of clay, a man who at times committed sins that most of us could not imagine, let alone commit. Yet, over the long haul, David sought to be righteous and his heart's desire was to do God's will. This is the kind of man God looks for, as indicated by Jeremiah 5:1-9. God doesn't expect perfection, as we can clearly see from David. with all that David had done wrong in his life, God could still look at David's heart and say he was a man after His own heart- a man who did all God's will.
Author/Excerpt: Jim George (A Man after God's own Heart)
There are 3 Questions I would like to raise:
What is your heart's desire?
What Epitaph will man write on your grave stone?
If it is your Heart's desire to please God, Does your Hands (Actions) line up with your Heart?
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