Becoming a Person After God’s Own Heart
by: Richman Priestley
January 21, 2026
“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people…””
This verse has always stood out to me. The prophet Samuel is speaking the word of the Lord to King Saul, informing him that God has decided to remove him as king and has chosen someone else. Examine what God says about the person He intends to choose. God will use this to touch our hearts if we allow Him.
Carefully notice what it says God did: “The Lord has sought for Himself.” This tells us that the God of the universe was quietly searching for something, or rather, someone. He was searching the lands, the seas, and the mountains of the earth, looking for a specific type of person. One whom He would deem a person after His own heart. Yes, God would eventually trust this person to be king, but before He wanted him to rule, He simply wanted him for Himself.
The person that God was referring to was David. At the time of this statement, David wore no crown. He was a lowly shepherd tending to sheep, who simply loved to worship. He was unnoticed by man, had very little influence, but heaven knew his name, and he left a mark on the heart of God. David was the one that God was looking for.
In all of Scripture, with roughly 3,000 different people mentioned, David is the only person God refers to as a man after His own heart. While Jesus perfectly modeled this reality (see John 5:19), God chose to say this about David. What this reveals is that anyone can claim to be a man or woman after God’s own heart, but in God’s eyes, it’s more rare than you think.
So what was it about David that would make God say something so profound about him? What were his desires in life? What did he care about? What was found in the internal places of his heart?
I believe the answers to these questions are found in Psalm 27, written by David himself. This psalm gives us a window into the deep places of David’s heart. It reveals the conversation that was happening between him and God when no one was listening. It is this conversation that will tell you everything you need to know about a person.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
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 inquire in his temple” (ESV, Psalm 27:4).
In the first line of verse 4, David makes a dramatic statement: “One thing have I asked of the Lord…”
Of course, David pursued more than one singular thing in his lifetime on earth. We all do. He is saying something deeper here. This was the thing that he wanted, gave his attention to, and talked to God about the most. Whatever was second place wasn’t even within reach of this. However, it is what follows this statement that gives us insight into the thing that consumed the majority of his prayer life.
Before we continue, I want you to take a minute to analyze your prayer life. If you were to add all of your conversations with God together, what are the things that you talk to Him about the most? Is it your work life, the faults of others, or God granting you a bigger lifestyle? Or how about your family, your dreams in life, or the things that God uses you to do?
Whatever it may be, we all have concerns that dictate the trajectory of our hidden conversations with God. Now, it’s not bad for us to dialogue with God over some of these things. He cares deeply to remind us His hand is in it, but it is when they become our primary concern and take the throne of our prayer lives that it becomes an issue. So for David, it wasn’t some lengthy prayer list or a checklist of do’s and don’t’s to give to God. But rather, there was something he craved far above all of this.
David’s cry can be translated into three main facets: to be near God, to see and experience His beauty, and to seek His presence continually. However, David did not say there were three things he sought after; he simply said one. So what was the one thing David wanted in life above all else? It was to experience God. It was a craving to be captivated by the presence of God in the confines of his heart. David understood there was much more to a Godly existence than God answering his temporal prayer requests. He experienced something so real between him and God that when he compared the other, lesser things in life with it, they began to seem unimportant. He tasted of God Himself.
Just like David, we must monitor and guard our hearts to protect ourselves from craving other things more than God. Why? Because nothing else in life truly satisfies. When my heart becomes more captivated by what God is doing for me than God Himself, a red flag is waving.
The Lord goes on to reply to David’s cry in verse 8:
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek” (ESV, Psalm 27:8).
Notice, David didn’t have to respond with “yes, sir.” Nor did he have to force himself to seek God’s heart more than His blessing. His heart was already headed in the right direction. It is the natural response of a heart touched by God to love Him back in the proper way. He did not need to tell his heart to pursue God; God had already won him over.
God’s presence is the great chiropractor of the human heart, realigning us with His love and priorities in life.
In closing, what do you want heaven to say about your life? Do you want to be known for how many resources you gathered, or how much influence you had? Or do you want heaven to tell a far greater narrative, that you were a person after God’s own heart?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for outloving me. Just as Moses prayed, I long for you to teach me Your ways, that I may know You. Touch my heart, and set me free from the things and cares of this world. I don’t want to do Christianity without you.
Amen.
Worship: Give Me Oil
Further Study
Acts 13:22, Matthew 22:34-40, Deuteronomy 4:24
Related Posts
This verse has always stood out to me. The prophet Samuel is speaking the word of the Lord to King Saul, informing him that God has decided to remove him as king and has chosen someone else. Examine what God says about the person He intends to choose. God will use this to touch our hearts if we allow Him.