What is it that God Wants?!!

God is tough to figure out! For sure, He is not like us. We tend to be most concerned with appearances and what is most visible. But God tells Samuel, the prophet, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).

Interestingly enough, God was talking about David when he said this. Yet, David has not even appeared on the scene. Back in chapter 13 verse 14 God says that he has rejected Saul and instead chosen another king who is a man after God's own heart. God was talking about David here, too. And as we can see, God places a high value on the heart. So, before David even walks onto the biblical scene we know one thing that Almight God has made sure to declare: David has the kind of heart that God esteems.

Thus, we know that God wants people's hearts. He esteems this more than anything else. It is not about our performance or our outward appearance... we can say all the right things and go through all the religious motions and yet our hearts can still be so very far from God.

13 The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isaiah 29)

Yet, God truly longs for our hearts and He wants us to genuinely desire him. Jesus said in John 4:24 that the father is seeking (looking for, searching for, earnestly desiring) those who will worship him in "spirit and truth." In short, God doesn't just want our minds, he doesn't want our lip service, rather he wants our affections and our desires... He WANTS our HEARTS!