“I have found David . . a man after My own heart.” Acts 13:22 NIV
“Never indulge the smallest thing in your heart that is incompatible with God’s heart.”
My thoughts today are about “compatible hearts.”
Compatibility is defined as “relating together in harmony.” It is important when working together, desirable for a lasting friendship, and essential in a marriage. Such harmony reduces friction and multiplies effectiveness. The Bible exalts unity. There has to be common ground – similarity without sameness. “Can two walk together unless they are agreed? . . what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” Amos 3:3/2 Corinthians 6:14-16 NIV.
It is worth taking notice when God Himself describes a person as a “man after My own heart.” Wouldn’t you say that you and I could learn a lot about this from David? Don’t you really want God to be able to say that about you? Today’s English Version, a more contemporary translation, expresses David as “the kind of man that I like.” There was something about David’s heart that was akin to God’s heart – God found their hearts compatible.
Imagine what life is like when your heart and God’s are compatible. That is the way your heart was created to be. Humanity at creation was graced with the image and likeness of God. It is sin that sets your heart contrary to His nature and will; sin is what makes you incompatible with God.
You are faced with three very real challenges. The first is just to bring your heart to a place where it is compatible with God’s. “Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you.” Psalm 86:11 NLT. Really, only Jesus can do that. You will need a new heart. See 1 Samuel 10:9/Ezekiel 26:26-27. Neither you nor I could ever do that on our own. The human heart does not need surgery; it needs a transplant. The Bible warns, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart . .'” Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV.
The next challenge is keeping your heart pure and undivided before God. That’s why the Bible urges you, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.” Proverbs 4:23 NLT. I think I could safely add that everything you do also affects your heart. David learned the difficulty of that.
With tragic consequence, he failed to guard his heart, experiencing great cost and regret. Read Psalm 51:10-13 NLT. That’s when David discovered what God always and only wants from you – “the sacrifice You want is a broken and contrite heart.” Psalm 51:16-17 NLT. In the margin of my Bible I have written that a broken and contrite heart is, “a heart in which the evil has been crushed.”
Anything that you indulge in your heart that is incompatible with God’s heart, causes an uncomfortable discrepancy between what you are and who you wish to be. As a boy, David guarded his heart; he kept his heart unspoiled. That is not easy for any of us to do, and there is a shameful chapter in David’s later life when he left his heart unguarded. Read 2 Samuel 11:1-5.
The important challenge is bringing your heart back to God in confession and repentance. I wonder if David remembered those simpler, happier days of his youth, when as the King he sadly permitted himself indiscretions that grieved God’s heart. Sin too easily can ensnare one’s heart if not vigilant continually. God looks for a pure heart, not a perfect man. See Matthew 5:8 NIV. In redemption, David found that and so can you. See Psalm 32:1-5 NLT.
My prayer for you is to keep your heart close to God’s heart at all times.