There are some good examples of faithful people in the Bible. Men and women who we can pattern our lives after when learning to be faithful and God-fearing Christians. While the situations and timing have changed between them and us, it’s the consciousness of God through the Spirit of Christ that unites us with them and joins us together in the body of Christ.
One great example that many people relate to is David. God raised David to be king of Israel, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.” Acts 13:22-23.
While it is easy for people to look at David’s life and see his failures and all the wrong things he did, God looked at David’s heart and saw something very good. Even when God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David as king, God reminded Samuel that He doesn’t see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
So what was it that God saw in the heart of David? We find one answer in Psalms 119:11,” I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” God saw His word in David’s heart. For the word of God to be in David’s heart means that God put it there. And if God put it there, He put part of Himself in David.
God doesn’t forget His word. He means to look upon it and remember it.
The word of God is valuable to Him because it came from Him, and it is Him. When He gives it to you, it is Him giving you everything that makes Him God. If you store it up and keep it, you will be transformed into His likeness and have a clear connection to God. You will also have power over sin and death, proving His word is present in you.
When God looks at you, He sees His word in your heart!
Are we any different than David? As God speaks His word and we hear it and receive it, it allows God to look upon us and see Himself in us. Once God sees Himself in you, He will never forget you. God always remembers His word.
God remembers what he sees.
Let’s look at how God perceived David’s heart. David did some amazing things in his life; some were well favored by the Lord, but then you have the adultery and the murder he committed. Not only those things, but God was not always pleased with how David ruled Israel either. David numbered the children of Israel after he got provoked by satan to do so. Things like these are what angered the Lord at times. David’s actions were not always the right things to do, but God was looking at something else, a clean heart full of the words of God that loved him.
There were reasons why David was a man after God’s own heart. One glaring reason was that anytime he failed in his obedience to God or lacked the understanding to accomplish what God was asking, all God had to do was remind David of the truth that rested in his heart and David would respond immediately. God would speak the word of the Lord to him, and David would find repentance in the mercies of God. Because of the word of God stored up in his heart, it was easy not to continue in sin against God. David loved truth and righteousness, which God saw in him.
When God brought forth Christ from David’s seed, He didn’t remember the bad that David did; He remembered the word that was present to accomplish what He had sent it to do. God is good at honoring His word and forgetting your sin when repentance has worked.
David wasn’t the only one God remembered; look at Hebrews chapter 11. He remembered the faith of Abraham and Sara. He didn’t remember Abraham doing wrong when he went into Sara’s handmaiden and had a child of the flesh. He remembered Abraham’s faith. It was the promise He gave him that his seed would be as the stars of the heavens. God honored His word in Abraham.
He didn’t remember Sara for when He corrected her for laughing at the word of the Lord. He remembered her faith in His visitation to her at a certain time to bring forth the promised seed through her womb. And what about Moses? Wasn’t it Moses that killed the Egyptian to deliver his people from their hands? Yes, but God didn’t forsake Moses for the crime of murder; instead, He remembered his faith as being in Egypt and seeing Him who is invisible. That’s what God remembered! And later in His life, a mighty word of the law came forth from Moses that led us all to Christ.
It’s evident in reading the Bible that these things are all spiritual examples for us to learn. One clear example is that God knew how to take those who fail in the flesh and raise them up in the Spirit to do a work of God. How was this possible? God put His word in their heart, and then He remembered it.
God remembers you because you are His word.
Examine yourselves today! How easily do you judge yourself by your failures and your lack of accomplishments in your life? Jesus said that “the flesh will profit you nothing, it is the Spirit that gives life, and my words are Spirit and life” John 6:63. When God looks at you, He is not expecting you to perfect your flesh or the works that you do in the flesh. He is looking for the life you create by His word. He sees how close you are walking to the word in your heart and remembers that He put it there.
When you join yourself to His word, you become His word. When that happens, God looks at you, and all He sees is His word, pure and true. Do you have a word from God in your heart? Whether you see it or not, God sees it! And that is what He remembers!
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