Could I be a man after God's own heart?

This week as I was preparing for a new series of Bible studies in our small group I found myself confronted with an interesting question. I was considering the life of David, and found myself contemplating what it really meant when God referred to David as "a man after my own heart".

You are probably familiar with this statement about David, as I was, but I wonder if you have really considered what a truly incredible thing it was for God to say. God pointed at a human being and commented that that person had a heart just like His own. That's nothing short of amazing. 

Abraham was called a friend of God. Moses was permitted to see God and may have had a closer relationship with Him than just about anyone who ever lived. Other famous Bible characters trusted and were used by God, and became renowned as special men and women, but I know of no other person who was described as a man after God's own heart. 

The point of our study will be to try to figure out just what that meant. How could a man with so many flaws (murder and adultery to name a couple of biggies) earn such a title? What would my life have to look like to be described as having God's heart?

The fact that someone as imperfect as David could be awarded such praise from God is really a source of hope for all of us. You know better than anyone what your flaws are. I know better than anyone the sins that plague me, and the areas of my life where I fall short of God's standards. And though I am painfully aware of my many shortcomings, I've never murdered anyone and I've never committed adultery. If a man like David, who fell into this depth of sin, can still find God's approval there is hope for me - and for you.

What an amazing thing that would be, for God to say "Rob is a man after my own heart". What greater thing could I aspire to? What could God say about me that would be more gratifying?  

I wonder, do you have goals for your spiritual growth? Is there something you want to attain with respect to your spiritual maturity and your personal growth as a child of God? I've concluded there are few goals, if any, that would be greater than being a person God would look at and say "here's a man after my own heart".

In our class we are going to try to figure out what it was about David's life that brought about this high praise. Obviously it wasn't his sinless perfection, since he was far from that. It wasn't that he always had a perfect relationship with God. In fact on one occasion he got so angry with God that he refused to take the Ark back home and abandoned it for three months at the home of a man in another community. That is all good news for us, since perfect behaviour and a perfect relationship with God are things we are not likely to attain while living in this world. There must have been other things about David that brought God's approval. Maybe things like his trust in God, his mercy toward others, his love for God's word, his great desire to please God, and the way he responded when he committed some truly terrible sins. 

In recent years I've understood more clearly than ever before that the things that please God are the things in my heart. Things like love and mercy and kindness and generosity and forgiveness. These, and other things that spring from my heart, are the qualities God is looking for. These are what we see in God's heart, and the more they become reality for me the closer I will come to being a man after God's own heart.