The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7
What does the Lord see on your heart?
To most citizen of the United States, Yorktown Battlefield is hallowed ground. There, patriots fought the last battle of the American Revolution. There, George Washington and his troops methodically wore down Lord Cornwallis and the British redcoats. There, on the morning of October 17, 1781, a drummer marcher out of the British encampment, followed by an officer waving a white handkerchief. The War of Independence was over.
If you were to visit the Yorktown battlefield today, you would be surprised by how ordinary it looks. Tall grass blows in the wind. A few tress are scattered at random across the site. The soil is brown and the sky is blue. It looks like any other field, and any other pasture. But, Yorktown is revered because of the significant events, the extraordinary event, that happened there.
As combat veterans, we have our own Yorktown Battlefield, certainly not as famous, but just as hallowed ground as Yorktown. Do you think that ground looks as ordinary as any other jungle, rice paddy, mountain valley or desert today? Do you revere it today?
King David has been revered by God’s people for centuries and millennia. In the genealogy of Jesus, David gets top billing.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham . . . Matthew 1:1
David is mention in the first line of the first Gospel of the first book of the New Testament. His name comes before Abraham’s! This man of God will be forever remembered, forever honored.
David, however, was just an ordinary man. Just like any of us. David was made of flesh and blood, muscles and tissue. His inclusion in the genealogy of our Savior is not on account of his extraordinary character or distinctiveness. Rather, David’s inclusion in the genealogy of Jesus is on account of God’s work in David’s life. David is revered because of the extraordinary work that God did through this ordinary m
Man of God, you are made of flesh and blood, muscles and tissue, just as David was. You struggle and sin and walk by faith, just as David did. God is at work in you and through you. He is using you to do extraordinary things—showing Christ’s love, raising a family, and sharing the peace of sins forgiven. And through you, God is furthering the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
- Do you struggle and sin? Do you repent and walk in faith, as David did?
- Do you believe God is at work in you? Why or why not?
- Do you know people who God’s work is being done through them?
- Do you believe that your sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ?
You can answer to all these questions by surrendering your pride, humbling yourself before the Lord and accepting his grace and forgiveness and God will do great things through you. He does His best work through Christ followers who submit to His Lordship and they reap the greatest rewards on earth, doing God’s work.