DEVO: Apr 30 - What is your one thing? The example of David

One thing I ask of the Lord,

this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house

of the Lord all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

 

Yesterday we ended with a question: What is your one thing?

 

According to this Psalm, David’s one thing was God!

 

·         He desired – single-mindedly – to dwell in God’s house, to live in God’s presence.

·         And more than just being there, he wanted to be there with a purpose. He wanted to actively seek God while in this house, while in God’s temple.

·         Why? Because the more he dwelt and sought, he knew that more and more and more he’d see the beauty of the Lord.

 

As long as this was David’s purpose, the experienced blessing, hope, and purpose.

 

But when he took his eyes off of God, that’s when trouble engulfed his life. Read 2 Samuel 11:1-2, and ask: Where was David and what was he seeking?

 

1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel [out to battle]. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his bed and was walking about on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, "This is Bathsheba, … the wife of Uriah ...." 4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.  

 

Where was David and what was he seeking?

 

·         First, he wasn’t where he was “supposed to be.” He wasn’t leading his people (out to battle like kings should do). Nor was he in the temple worshiping and seeking God. No – verse 2 – he was home in bed in the late afternoon. He’d grown fat and lazy and inattentive to God and kingdom.

·         And what was he seeking? Personal pleasure.

 

For David, it was sin, sex, self-indulgence, and adultery on both sides – to be sure – but focus on that phrase, “personal pleasure.” David was doing what he wanted to do. What he thought would make him happy.

 

Yesterday we asked the question: What is your one thing?

 

We’ll answer this in greater detail tomorrow, but look at David’s life:

 

·         When he sought God wholeheartedly, there was beauty, hope, light, and kingdom blessings.

·         When he turned his focus toward himself, there was sin, laziness, trouble, and generational curses.

 

Read that one hundred times until the secret to life comes joyfully alive in your heart!

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who loves the song

“single-minded, wholehearted”