Lies, adultery, murder. The description of the latest television show or a man after Gods own heart? If you guessed a television show, in most cases you are right, but in this instance I am referring to a man that loved God with all of his heart, King David.
Stop and think for a moment. Those three words at the beginning describe David at a time in his life, yet God calls him a man after His own heart. How can this be? David had what we know as a repentive heart. When put face to face with his sin, David repented and turned back to a heart of worship.
When God gives us a warning not to judge it is for a reason. I believe that we are MISSING DAVID.
I know that there are men and women of God who today still posses that same heart. Who love God with all they have within in them, but are cast aside and judged by other “Christians” based upon a few visible mistakes they have made in their life. I understand that the word says we can tell how a person is doing spiritually if we look at the “fruit” in their life, but what fruit are we measuring by. Our own standards or the word of God?
Let’s look at Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. This and no other, is the fruit which we are to look for in others. A person may struggle from time to time with what the church has labeled the ‘bad sins’, but could be showing more of these fruits of the Spirit in their lives than the ones doing the finger pointing. The problem is we have classified sin, making one worse than another. All sin leads to death. I do, however, find it kind of ironic that the word of God puts a lot of emphasis on avoiding gossip, slander, envy, jealously and such.
People have been turned off of God and church because of this judgmental attitude. Not to mention the wonderful blessing these David’s could have poured out to the church if only they were held up instead of kicked down. We have met a few of these David’s. They truly are passionate about God, but are sick of being judged for mistakes they have made. And the more they're being judged, the more crushed they become and before long that passionate heart for God becomes hard. We as believers are responsible for that heart being turned away from God and God will judge us accordingly.
So the next time you see someone struggling; reach down in the dirt, get yourself mucky, put them on your shoulders and carry them back to the Father so we don’t miss another David. Remember David was a man after God’s own heart. Let’s learn from these David’s
