1 Samuel 16:7

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

Before we get digging let me give you some background for this scripture.  King Saul messed up real bad, it’s a great story you should give it a read, so God sent Samuel to find a new king even while Saul was still alive and ruling.  Samuel goes where the Lord tells him to go, Bethlehem.  There God tells him that He’ll name the new king from the sons of Jesse.  Jessie has a whole lot of tall, good looking sons to pick from and as soon as Samuel sees the first one of them he naturally assumes that he's the one.  That’s when God tells him not to look at the appearance, God knows the heart.

There are so many lessons in this story I could probably start from the beginning of the book and write a hundred blogs going through just to this point.  But I’ll stick to what the Lord has put on my heart to write.  I’ve got a personal story to attach to this blog that happened when I was 18.  Every Sunday morning I remember that time in my life.  I hope you don’t mind if we walk down memory lane before we dig into this Word.

I had been serving the Lord for four years, so at this point I was fluent in Christianese and very comfortable at any church I went to.  I’m 5^th generation Pentecostal, and the church I got baptized in when I was 14, though non-denominational, leaned heavily to Pentecostal.  If you’ve never been to a Pentecostal church I’ll explain to you, when praising the Lord it’s very normal to raise your hands.  I know this is done in other churches, but not all of them.  Anyways, I had grown very comfortable raising my hands every Sunday morning like the grown ups did.  God let this go on for 4 years, He knows me better than I know myself so I’m confident that His time, like always, was perfect.

One Sunday morning I was praising like always and I felt the Lord very clearly tell me to put my hands down.  I immediately thought, ‘That’s just the enemy trying to stop me from praising, I’m going to ignore him.’ But as the songs continued I grew more and more uncomfortable, I couldn’t even hear the music all I could concentrate on was that still, soft voice…

‘Lauren, put your hands down.”

“Why Lord?  If I put my hands down people will think I’m not praising you right.’

“You’re not praising me; your hands are up right now so others can see you.  You are praising your own image, put your hands down.’

That’s all it took, my hands were down.  I felt like a little kid who had gotten caught doing something very naughty.  It had never occurred to me; I raised my hands like the other women did because it looked so spiritual when they did it.  To be honest it took a moment for my heart to stop pounding, the first time you clearly hear from the Lord is a lot of things, awesome, frightening, beautiful, words probably can’t describe it right.  After I calmed down I began crying out to God.  I don’t know why I thought I was so insignificant that God wouldn’t notice my intentions every Sunday, but like the scripture says He searches our hearts.  My heart was in the wrong place but I saw what I wanted to see, I saw what man saw. 

When I went digging in this Word it brought it all back to me.  When God spoke this to me He showed me His majesty, His authority, and His love.  I was, and am, so important to Him that He searches my heart.  You’re that important to Him as well, so submit every step, every movement, every word and thought to Him.  I know the reason I raise my hands now, I raise them to the most High in honor of Him, to give Him praise, not because it looks super spiritual.  I don't care how spiritual I look or how elegantly I can spout scriptures or cute Christian sayings, and neither does God.  We care about my heart, we care about the 'why' I'm doing what I'm doing.

A little more digging in this Word showed me another thing; the first son that Samuel thought would be king God said He had rejected.  Why?  Because He had searched this boys heart.  This young man didn’t know it but he could have been king, but his heart was in the wrong place.  How many amazing blessings, how many amazing opportunities do we miss out on because our hearts are in the wrong place?