David - Preparing for God to Use You

There are two mistakes we can make when wanting God to use us. The first: we can think that being chosen or ‘anointed’ by God is all that is required to be used by him. Once we have our ‘God dream’ we expect the pieces of our calling to slot swiftly and smoothly into place. 

This is partly a result of our culture of instant-everything. We inhabit a world that demands things not so much ‘on the cheap’ but ‘on the quick.’ 

Sooner’, ‘Earlier’, ‘Faster’, ‘Straight away’, ‘Now’ are the promises made to us by the advertising we’re immersed in. We bring these lenses of instant gratification into our relationship with God.   

The first mistake, in an instant world, is we expect our dreams to be fulfilled tomorrow. In so doing, we miss the value of slow preparation. 

The second mistake we can make is to think that ‘preparing to be used by God’ no longer applies to us, because we are being used by God. We are already doing what he wants us to do! 

In our early years following Jesus, he will instill in us lessons he never wants us to forget. However, God is always training us! Throughout our lives he will repeatedly take us through seasons of being stripped back. In John 15:2 Jesus promised that everyone who bears fruit would be…high-fived? Rewarded? Promoted? No – pruned! In other words, put through more ‘training’ that they might be even more fruitful. During these seasons God is getting us ready to be used by him.  

When we talk of God ‘preparing us’ and wanting us to have a ‘depth of flavour’ what exactly do we mean? What is God searching for in those he uses? 

David’s story gives us the answer.  

Why did God choose David, a young boy, and not the seven other sons of Jesse? Or for that matter, why David and not all the other people living in Israel? The answer is found in God’s words to Samuel: ‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 

David is described as ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13:14). What is God considering when he looks at someone’s heart?   

First, God is looking for humility. God seems to love humility. Humble people are teachable; they are open to learning and growing. A humble heart will mean we don’t ‘settle’ or become complacent in our walk with God.  

Humility means we are open to correction; we understand we will get things wrong, hurt others or let God down. Having a heart after God does not mean never sinning, it means we are quick to return to him when we do.  

Secondly, he is looking for hearts devoted to him – hearts that place him before all else.  

The one thing David sought wasn’t money or armies. It was God himself. God delights in using people who care more for him than for any position or role they are given.  

Thirdly, God is looking for hearts that depend on him. So many of us try to ‘go it alone’. We think God wants us to be independent and that ‘maturity’ is being able to do the tasks we’ve been given without needing help. The truth is entirely the opposite. God works best with his friends, those who know they need him to accomplish anything of eternal worth and who stick close.  

Perhaps you are reading this thinking – ‘Uh oh! I struggle to be humble, devoted and dependent. God can clearly never use me!’ Welcome to our club! 

The good news is that there is something we can do. David wasn’t simply anointed by God; he was prepared by him. We might have expected David to head straight to the palace after Samuel had anointed him. Instead he did something remarkable: he went back to looking after the sheep.  

In this boring, hidden and lonely place David’s heart continued to be nurtured and his skills honed. Strange as it might seem, he learned how to be the shepherd of Israel by shepherding sheep.  

We may not have a heart that is especially humble, devoted or dependent, but we do have a choice we can make. We can choose to embrace the role God has for us in the boring, hidden and lonely place. If we do so, he will teach us the practical skills we’ll need for the tasks ahead.    

Many of us are not in the place we want to be. We feel that life, like a video buffering, has got stuck. No matter how many times we press ‘refresh’ we cannot move it on. 

We might be surprised to discover we are being marinated. This is a time for our flavor to develop; for our character to deepen.  

Fighting was not all that David learned during his years as a shepherd. Israel’s fiercest warrior also became her greatest worshiper. Many of the psalms are attributed to David. Before David’s songs gave a voice to the souls of billions, the sheep, the stars and his God heard them.  

We strongly suspect that his most famous son, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing’ (Ps. 23:1), was not composed in a palace but on the lonely side of a hill, at three o’clock in the morning. We imagine that those chords were first played for God’s ears alone. 

The secret place, the place no one is watching, applauding or appreciating, is the place we learn to sing to our Father. This includes sung worship; it also includes lives of worship.  

Most of us will not be called to be worship leaders; we are all called to be worshippers. If we are to really dance for an Audience of One, there’s no better place to practice than when it feels like no one is appreciating us. This is where we get to train ourselves to do the things only God will see.  

We suspect David also learned a lot about leading people by shepherding sheep. 

Sometimes leadership is a difficult job; people do not always appreciate the sacrifices made for them. David must have become an expert in laying down his life for those who didn’t thank him. Yet all the evidence is that David devoted himself to his few sheep, caring for them deeply. This is what made him so ready to care for a numerous people.   

Some of us think, ‘When my circumstances have sorted themselves out, then I will worship God.’ We miss that if we don’t worship God in the darkness, our worship will be short-lived in the light. The best way to be given more responsibility by God is to take responsibility for what we have been given.  

We know too many who have missed walking into their calling because they didn’t grasp the seasons when God was training them. They didn’t stay in the boring, hidden and lonely place where their hearts could be nurtured and their gifts honed. When they finally came face to face with their giants they didn’t know how to fight. 

Serve, worship and practice when no one but God sees. Here we develop depth. What is more, stay hungry; seek this training out. God will never stop preparing us for the next step; there is always more. God promised David: ‘I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth’ (2 Sam. 7:9). He used sheep to accomplish this. He is using our version of sheep to shape us.