Brett glanced out the window and mentioned that it sure would be nice to go for a walk.  I laughed because storm clouds threatened to open up and pour down rain any minute.  He probably did want to go for a walk, but only if the sun smiled warmly, but not too warmly of course, down on us. 

Is that how I treat my walk with  God?  Am I only willing to go for a walk with Him along the bubbling brook with cool breezes and a cloud free sky?  What if He wants me to tight rope walk across the Niagara Falls blindfolded in a thunderstorm with Him? 

Daniel walked into the lion’s den.  His friends walked into the fiery furnace.  Noah and his family walked into the ark while everyone else laughed.  Abraham walked up the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Esther put her life on the line and walked into the presence of the king uninvited.  David walked up to the giant Goliath.  Joshua marched into battle against 135,000 Midianites with just 300 soldiers.  Jesus walked to Calvary.

I know that it is easy to think that somehow it was easier for the above mentioned people to do these great acts of fearlessness.  But, if it was easier for them, why was it easier?  Actually I don’t believe it was any easier for them to walk with God than it is for me.  If I want to have such a close walk with God that I am willing to proverbially walk across Niagara Falls on a tight rope, blind folded, in a thunderstorm with Him, then I have to be walking so close to Him that His heart and mine are one.  Daily I need to walk through the sunshine and the puddles, the cool breeze and the hurricane and accept it all as God’s will for my life at that moment.  I need to risk giving up my idea of the good life and trade it for a life of living on the edge with God.

I picked out several ripe peaches to eat for breakfast.  They all looked incredibly delicious.  I washed them and proceeded to eat the first one.  My taste buds marveled at how delicious fresh peaches taste.  I reached for a second peach eagerly anticipating the same sensation dancing on my tongue.  Disappointment hit me, but I half-heartedly finished eating it.  I reached for a third peach, hoping to once again reach the pinnacle of taste bud marvelings.  Disappointment engulfed me, but not to be deterred I ate a fourth peach.  The fourth peach did not live up to the amazing taste of the first peach either.  

David and his brothers were a lot like those peaches.  Just by looking on the outside Samuel couldn’t tell what the inside contained.  But, God could.  Samuel listened to God’s voice and passed by all of David’s good-looking brothers.  God chose the least likely candidate from a human perspective.  Most of the time I feel that compared to others I don’t have much to offer God .  I sometimes feel as though I’m not good enough on the inside or the outside.  

But, despite what David looked like on the outside, God called David a “man after His own heart”.  What made David a man after God’s own heart?  God answers that in the next sentence of Acts 13:22 by saying, “He will do everything I want him to do.”  It takes a lot of prayer and dying to self for me to be willing to do everything that God wants me to do.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” 2 Cor. 12:9 – 10