A Half Heart or a Whole Heart; It Makes a Huge Difference

I Kings 11:9-10 “And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.”

How many times would God or the Lord Jesus have to appear to you and speak specifically to you in order for you to faithfully follow Him?

Are any of you like me? I’ve thought several times that if God would just speak to me I would be faithful to Him all my life. If I could have just seen the miracles of Jesus I would always trust in Him.

God actually appeared to Solomon twice in his life and spoke to him (I Kings 3 and 9). Three times if you count God confronting Solomon with his sin here in I Kings 11: 11-13. Solomon saw the miraculous manifestation of God’s glory in the completed temple (I Kings 8:10). Solomon saw and experienced the fulfillment of God’s promises to his father David. He experienced God’s blessings to the extreme. He was wiser than anybody. He was richer than anybody. He was more successful than anybody.

As a young man Solomon remembered his father, David’s, words and pursued God, but when he became an old man he allowed all of his foreign, idolatrous wives (who were Solomon’s own personal addictions — we all have them) to lead him away from God Almighty. And because of his unfaithfulness to God in his latter years, God took most of the kingdom from Solomon’s son.

Solomon has so much going for him, but as crazy as it sounds, he blows it at the end of his life. WHY?! What was the difference between Solomon the half-hearted and David the whole-hearted?

The answer to that question is critical to being able to live a life that fully pleases God.

First of all, notice that God never appears to David like He did to Solomon. Nor does He speak directly to David, although He does send word to David through the prophets occasionally. And yet in spite of his moral failures, David stays faithful to God all his life, and God blesses David’s faithfulness.

So, if it wasn’t miraculous, spiritual experiences that gave David his faith, what was it?

The answer is in I Samuel 13:14 in the Old Testament and repeated in Acts 13:22 in the New Testament. It’s like God wanted to be sure we got this point. “David was a man after God’s own heart”. What does that mean?

It doesn’t mean that David’s heart was a copy of God’s heart. I think the key word here is the word ‘after’. David pursued God’s heart relentlessly. [What did God want, what did God delight in, what did God hate.] The more David learned about God, the more he trusted Him.

Solomon started well and he enjoyed God’s heart as long as it brought him riches and blessings, but Solomon’s enjoyment of God faded over time. While Solomon was a religious person, he never pursued God’s heart like his father did.

So, there it is!

Am I pursuing God’s heart relentlessly, or am I simply enjoying the blessings that come from God while my attention wanders to where my heart actually is?

Solomon avoided this question WHILE DAVID EMBRACED IT.

“Oh, faithful Father in Heaven, please help me to be like David in this!”

Just a Follower of Jesus,

Alan W. Harris