How to Get After God's Heart

Scripture:
Sing to him; sing praise to him;
tell about all his wondrous works!
Boast in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
Remember the wondrous works he has done,
his wonders, and the judgments he has pronounced.
1 Chronicles 16:9-12

Observation: Upon moving the Arc to Jerusalem, David - the man after God's own heart - pronounces a psalm. While the bulk of the psalm will be about the history and nature of Lord's covenant with Israel, it opens with these four instructions:

1) Sing praise explicitly about the Lord's wonderous works.

2) Proclaim the greatness of the Lord (aka boast) explicitly by his name.

3) Seek the Lord and continue to look to him for blessing.

4) Remember everything the Lord has ever done.

This is in fact a great summary of how every believer should think and act every day ... it is an action-oriented summary of the idea of meditating on the Lord and his word, of praying continually, and of aligning ourselves to cleanliness. In reverse order - from the inside out - if we did these things ... remembered how wonder God is, looked for even more wonders from him, told others about all those great things, and then reached up to the Lord to praise him for it all ... that would be a model life of faith, hope, and love.

Application: There is no surprise when I think about the struggles I am having in life - physically and mentally, in body, mind, and soul - aligned to the fact that I rarely do any of these things. I wish to be a man after God's own heart, but I don't do the things taught by THE man after God's own heart.

Yet I know what the Lord has done for me, my family, and my nation. He has delivered me from the depths of despair, protected me from evil, very practically provided for me in every need. I do desire his continued blessing, and I sincerely wish I would enter more and more into his will in order to find the peace I desire. I would like to tell others about him and about the salvation I have found in Jesus, and I do from time to time take a while to sing praise and pray about his greatness.

I remember often. I don't seek enough. I absolutely don't proclaim enough. I praise and pray less frequently than I should.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for this lesson today. May I fix my thoughts and actions. Again I ask, please aid me in aligning both my internal thoughts and my outward words and acts to embrace the model taught by David. Yes, I know I will never, ever be the man I once thought I could be. May I instead just be a man after your heart. Amen.