Week 13: God Chose Our Heart
Weekly Reading:
I Samuel 10 - 26
Opening Prayer
Father God,
I see Your creations all around, and I am amazed by Your glory. You provide needed strength and underserved grace. I know that You see my heart when You look at me. Help me to love others the way You love.
Amen
Study
As I scroll through images on Instagram, it is apparent that we live in a world that judges based on looks; your face, your body. Even when interviewing for a customer service job, we are judged by our looks. Comila Shahani-denning, Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Hoffstrom University, studied bias in hiring based on physical attractiveness.
“Physically attractive people have long been viewed as more sociable, happier and successful than their less attractive counterparts. This stereotype has been documented as far back as the early 1970s in psychology journals and academic studies that showed a clear bias toward more attractive individuals in teacher assessments of students, voter preferences for political candidates and jury judgments in simulated trials.”*
Shahari-Denning notes that while categories where you might expect attractiveness to rule out others like a news anchor, celebrity, or model, many jobs are judged by looks, including non-customer-facing roles. The exception was jobs where a man was typically employed, a less attractive female would be chosen over an attractive female.
The attractiveness bias continues to employment practices such as performance reviews and disciplinary actions.
I think this is why we love a show like “The Voice,” where judges choose contestants by their voice, not their looks or body type.
In I Samuel 15, Saul’s disobedience and ego infuriate God. Samuel tells Saul that God desired to destroy the Amalekites—all of them: men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys (I Samuel 15:3).
However, Saul spared Agag, the King, and his men spared the best livestock. Saul explains to Samuel what he has done proudly. When Samuel explains his disobedience and the Lord’s resulting anger to Saul, Saul backpedals and blames those he leads. Samuel angrily explains that all good intentions mean little when disobeying the Lord. Samuel tells Saul of God’s disappointment and regrets in making Saul king (reminder that Saul was brought into the position because of his original favor and looks).
Fast forward to I Samuel 16; God tells Samuel that he is over Saul and ready to name his successor. He tells Samuel to find a man with many sons named Jesse in Bethlehem, and God had already selected one of Jesse’s sons.
With his worldly attractiveness bias, Samuel immediately selected Eliab, who was tall and mighty. Samuel thought for sure this guy was the one, and God had other plans in mind.
God chose the youngest, the smallest of Jesse’s sons. God chose David for his heart, the heart of a warrior who trusted God to deliver him and the Israelites (I Samuel 17:36). God did not choose David for his strength; God chose David for his heart, his faith in God.
Does God not choose you for the same reason? Jesus tells his disciples:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. John 15:16
God chose us; we did not choose Him first. God knew our hearts before we were born.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart” Jeremiah 1:5 (a)
In the same way, God knows our hearts. The Lord knows the real person, not the Instagram person. God knows our hearts, needs, and desires—the good and the bad.
“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10
In Proverbs 21:2, we know that people will justify their actions, but God always knows their hearts.
While the world judges us by what we say, how attractive we are, how toned our bodies are, God, judges us by our hearts and who we are in Him. God judges our motives as pure or evil. God judges when we scheme for notoriety, profit, or when we freely give.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
God wants you to be the person God designed you to be with a pure heart who loves each other.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
*https://hrexecutive.com/weighing-the-impact-of-the-attractiveness-advantage/
Closing Prayer
Father God,
I know that often my motives are not pure, and sometimes I hide behind a mask and struggle to show my real self to others. Please give me the strength to be honest, genuine, and authentic.
Amen
Homework
If God looked at your heart and motives today, what would he see?
Pray that the motives of your heart are always pure.
