How Would Someone Sum Up Your Life?

If someone who knows you well were to write a summary of your life in just a few sentences, what would they say? Would the things he or she says mention the things you are most passionate about? Would those few sentences reflect your walk with God? Would it be positive or negative?

As I have studied David’s life this summer and shared messages with you from what the Bible tells us about him, I have found some remarkable sentences in the account of his life in 1 and 2 Samuel that summarize his life. These sentences sum up the various events of David’s life and point to Godly characteristics that we can learn from. These sentences reveal to us the life of “a man after God’s own heart” and show us how to live with a heart for God.

Here is a sampling organized around some of the main events of David’s life:

David’s anointing to be king of Israel:

• Man looks at the outward appearance (literally ‘the face’), but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). From the time that he was anointed, the Lord knew that David had a heart for God, and God chose him to be king because of his heart. What does God see when he looks at your heart?
• “The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David” (1 Samuel 16:13). David did not live by his own power, but by the power of God. Just as the Spirit came upon David at his anointing, so he comes into our lives we accept Christ and are baptized. Do you choose to live by the power of God’s Spirit within you?

David’s slaying of Goliath:

• “I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (1 Samuel 17:45). David could slay Goliath because he was more than a boy with a slingshot; he was a warrior fighting in the name of the Lord Almighty. People today may choose to defy the Lord as Goliath did, but my question for you is: Do you live in the name of the Lord Almighty?

David’s moving the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem:

• When David danced before the Lord, only to be criticized by his wife, he said, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes” (2 Samuel 6:21, 22). David worshiped the Lord freely and extravagantly, without inhibitions. Do you celebrate freely before the Lord when you come to worship?

David’s desiring to build a Temple:

• David desired a Temple, but when God told him “no,” he “went in and sat before the Lord.” (2 Samuel 7:18). After receiving what had to be one of the great disappointments of his life, David went in and sat and talked with the Lord. In his prayer, David asks the Lord, “Who am I...that you have brought me this far?” He goes on to acknowledge the greatness of God. When you have a heart for God, you acknowledge his greatness even when he does not give you the things you desire. Do you recognize that God always knows best?

David’s kindness to Jonathan’s son

• After David settled in Jerusalem as king, he asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can shown God’s kindness?” (2 Samuel 9:3). Saul had made himself David’s enemy, but David had a great friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan, so he sought to demonstrate kindness (the word is actually “grace”) to anyone left from Saul’s family — and he did so with Jonathan’s son. Do you extend God’s kindness, his grace, to others, even those with whom you disagree?

David’s repentance for adultery and murder:

• When confronted for his sins, David responded to Nathan, the prophet, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). He was the king, but he acknowledged his sin. We all sin, and we know we do. Do you acknowledge your sin to God and receive his mercy?
• When David’s infant son died, he said, “Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23), In some way, David had come to understand that, through our faith and the mercy of God, we live beyond the grave. He lived for the day that he would see his child again. Do you live for eternity?

These are just some of the lessons David can teach us. The New Testament tells us that “God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’” (Acts 13:22). We too can live with hearts for God. I hope you are learning these lessons from the life of David.