This is Your Life

Have you considered that… when pressed with the question of the meaning of life, God sometimes turns the question around on us..... "You tell me...what is the meaning of your life?" That is, when it's all said and done, what is the message or meaning proclaimed by the way you've lived your life, by the choices you've made? Would our Heavenly Father look favorably on your answer?

One of the great stories in the Bible is of David, a rags-to-riches story that has Hollywood written all over it! David started out as a shepherd and ended up as a king. David’s actions weren’t always godly:

• He was a warrior that shed too much blood (1 Chronicles 22:8)
• He committed adultery with a married woman named Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:4)
• His adulterous relationship got Bathsheba pregnant. He resolved the issue by assigning Bathsheba’s soldier husband, Uriah, to a forward battle position where he was left to be killed (2 Samuel 11:5-17)
• He had multiple wives (2 Samuel 3:1-5)
• He was a negligent father, and his family was plagued with tragedy and turmoil (2 Samuel 13:15-18, 28-29)
• He did not follow the Lord’s command and pridefully numbered his troops, causing 70,000 of his people to die in a plague (2 Samuel 24:10,15)

David was human, a man who committed many sins. But, over his life, David sought to be righteous and his heart desired to do God’s will. For this, God stated “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart…” (Acts 13:22)

We are all sinners, not a single one of us is perfect. God does not expect perfection. But all sin is an act of selfishness. In fact, if you look at the word sin, right in the middle is the letter ‘I’. Steve Wood, noted Catholic author, even spells it as sIn to help remind us that all sins start within us in our minds. Jesus said, “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:21-23)

Consider all that David had done wrong in his life, yet God could still say that David was a man after his own heart. Where is your heart? Does your heart desire to follow God? A song by Switchfoot asks, “This is your life, are you who you want to be?” You may take three steps forward, and one or two back on your road to follow God. But remember that God looked at David’s heart, and this is what he will look for in us too.