LEARNING DAILY

1 Samuel 16:7, But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

We have all done it; we have all looked at another person and made certain judgments about a person regarding their appearance, the way one walks or by something else we see. I helped open several large retail stores by being a part of the hiring process. There may have been hundreds of applications for the positions to be filled. Along with another person we would have a time established for applicants to bring in their applications. When they did, I made judgment piles where their application would be placed. One pile was called absolutely not, another was absolutely call for an interview, another was maybe. Appearance, confidence, swagger! I wonder how many really good people I missed by doing this!

Pastor Newton talked about the “labels” we place on others. He said, “labels are given to characterize and generalize people placed on them because of decisions made or not made”. The prophet Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the person to become king after Saul. Once again, Samuel used the criteria used to anoint Saul as king over Israel. But God, told Samuel that this criteria would not work. The criteria God wanted used was to be found in the heart of the next king.

Pastor Newton used another example regarding David being judged by his appearance; he used the account of David facing the giant Goliath. David’s oldest brother accused him of being self-serving. King Saul told David, he was not capable of fighting Goliath – look at your size and then look at Goliath. Saul also told David that he was not the right fit; Saul’s armor was too big for David. These labels are from the Listener Guide. They were spoken to discount David and discourage him from doing battle with Goliath.

As we all know, those appearances, those judgments we make by a simple glance may not be correct. Did David’s brothers know what he had done to protect the flock of sheep he was watching over? Did they know He had fought a bear and a lion, killing them while protecting the sheep. Had they forgotten that Samuel had anointed David to be the next king of Israel? Saul may have thought that his armor would protect David, but it was too big. Besides David had the anointing of God upon him – that was all he needed to defeat the giant. “David’s weapon was God” (Newton).

It would be good for you to read 1 Samuel 16-17 for yourself. David did not allow his life to be determined by what others said about him. He knew that God had given him skills to do what He had for him to do. He had been prepared to fight a giant by using the skills God had given him as a shepherd. “David had been faithful in the little things, in the secret things, and in the sacred things” (Newton). No one had seen David being prepared to do God’s work when he was alone with the sheep. He was still faithful.  Because of that, the labels others had given him came off and he was used mightily by God.

Isn’t that the message Believers need to hear today! To be anointed means to be set apart for God’s use. Every Believer has been set apart to serve God. You do not need to be like any other Believer to be used by God; you just need to use what God has given you. You do not need to do anything to earn His love; you already have it because of your salvation and by walking on the narrow way into His kingdom. Do not allow anyone to tell you that you are anything different than who God says you are!