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 Daily
Grace At
Jesus` Feet
February
1, 2010
Face Value! Or Heart
Value!
The
LORD looks at the heart - I Samuel 16:7
A heart defines a man.
Heart is an integral part of a human being.
Apart from the anatomical point of view, a heart is the throne of all
sensibilities in a man. The heart loves, hates, feels sorrowful, fills
with joy
and rejoices, plans good or evil; all actions springs from the heart.
It is the
seat of our moral life and characters. No wonder Lord looks and
examines the
heart of a person. Unlike human beings, limited in understanding the
person and
judges based on face values, God looks at the heart. Most
misunderstanding
comes due to the inability of a person to look and properly understand
a person
based on the heart value. Even though, the heart can be understood in
some ways
through words come out and with some facial expression, it may be
difficult to
judge a person. God alone could precisely and accurately judge a person
because
God looks at the heart. We read in 1 Samuel 16 verses 1-13 a story of
God’s
choice of a King who will rule Israelites after Saul was rejected by
God due to
his disobedience. God asked Samuel, the prophet to go and find a king
that He
desires to anoint to rule the nation. You may see God’s recruitment
strategy
for a nation’s highest position. God’s ways are certainly not man’s
ways! To
recruit a soldier, authorities look for a well built person with good
physic
and great health; to elect a president of a nation, there were 100s of
formalities and rules to be followed. In this case, Samuel invites
Jesse,
father of 8 boys to line-up his sons for a sacrifice with the intension
to
elect God’s anointed. Samuel though prophet uses his own wisdom and
looks for a
well built personality. When Samuel saw Eliab, one of the sons of
Jesse,
he
thought, “Wow, his resume is great! Let’s pick him up.” But the Lord
said to
Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have
rejected
him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at
the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (verse 7)." Now Samuel
looks
for a shredder to throw Eliab’s CV. Today, when young men and women
look for a
life partner, they look in to all sorts of qualification but for the
“will of
God.” Once someone told me that he is looking for a ABCD [A (age), B (beauty),
C
(caste), D (duty)] in the future life partner
that he is on the look out. Even in this age and time, people (mostly
in India)
look for the ABCDs in a
person’s profile when looking for a life-partner. These may be
important to an individual but above all, if God’s
perfect will
and grace is sought, all the necessary ingredients will be well covered
in a
marriage.
As you saw God rejects those things men esteem as high. Here in this
story,
Jesse did all he could to present some great sons of his and presented
seven of
them to be interviewed by Samuel, God’s emissary. The Lord has not chosen any of these
(verse 10). Now, Samuel
asked Jesse, “"Are these
all
the sons you have?". Jesse probably would
have replied to
Samuel, like, “well, there is still one who is the youngest in our
home,
you see,
even though I love him, sorry to say this, you may not want him, he is
a shepherd boy, I
deliberately avoided
him, possible you may not like the stink on him, his IQ is much lesser
than
these other 7 boys before him. He is not a serious minded person, very
playful,
always wandering with the old harp and a stick. He is in a faraway land
tending
the sheep and probably not well dressed and weeks before he might have
taken
shower.” Samuel ordered Jesse, “Send for him; we will not
sit down until he
arrives." As soon as Samuel saw David, Lord said: “Rise and anoint him;
he
is the one.” We read in verse 13, as soon as Samuel anointed David, the
Spirit
of the LORD came upon David in power.
Do you resemble
this story? Did people rejected you and God in His
mercy elected you and took you the greater heights that no one around
you still
do not believe the mighty acts of God in you life? Remember it is only
God’s
way of blessing you. God has seen special in you that others were blind
to look
at. This is because God looks the hearts rather men look at the face
value. A
quote says like this: “God does not call the qualified; but He
qualifies the
called.” People show favoritism based on face value and that is why God
does
not show favoritism because He goes by heart value!
God searches
every minds and hearts (Psalm 7:9); God discovers the
secrets of the hearts (Psalm 44:21); God searches every heart and
understands every motive behind the thoughts (1 Chronicles 28:9).
Remember what
our Lord say in Jeremiah 17:10, “I the LORD search the heart and
examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according
to what his
deeds deserve." That is the reason David, ask God to search his heart
and
asked God’s help to lead him and give him a pure heart. Say the same
prayer
from Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and
know my
anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead
me along
the path of everlasting life.” When we ask God to constantly examine
our heart
and help us realize our sinful thought, He is faithful and just to
forgive us
from all our evil thoughts (1 John 1:9, 10). Also let us not judge
others by
looking at the outward appearance and other measure we usually have to
judge
the person. Most times, we fail when we judge one just with the outward
look.
Once, a famous
Russian novelist decided to help a poor Publisher who
is suffering from the loss of business. This publisher found his life
is drying
up and he did all he can to bring up his family in a town. The
novelist, who
looked very ordinary approached this publisher and told him that he has
written
a new novel and gave those manuscripts to the publisher. The novelist
said I
know the hardships you are going through and wanted to help you. Please
print
and publish this novel and I do not need any money for this novel; you
sell
them and make a living for yourself. The publisher looked at the
simplicity of
the novelist and said, this book will not sell and fit to be thrown
away. The
novelist became very angry at this comment and plucked the papers from
the
hands of the publisher and said, “look so many publisher line up at my
home to
get my stories and publish and compete among themselves; but you took
me so
lightly and say these fit for a trash can.” The publisher asked the
person who
he was and the novelist replied “I am Leo Tolstoy” and walked away from
the
publisher’s office. The publisher who misunderstood the great novelist
based on
the looks, followed and pleaded him to give the manuscript so the book
may be
published. Leo Tolstoy said, “I wanted to help you and make you a rich
man
because of your poor condition; but you wrongly judged me and rejected
my
papers; no way I can give my book to you” and walked away from the
publisher.
Let us not
judge one another based on appearance but ask God to
help us make wise discernment!
Prayer: Father, help me to
make a wise discernment when I
approach people I do not understand well and help me not to base my
judgment
based on looks but give enough time to understand with your help.
May you have a
great Day!
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