Hi-dy ho, listeners. Today is a good day, because today you’re listening to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast for Christian professionals where every muffin goes into the oven to get your faith and work aligned. I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and our show today focuses on King David. Now, you might know David as the teenager who killed a giant warrior with just a slingshot and a rock. But his story of leadership is way bigger than that, spanning four decades. What set him apart and made him such a success over those 40 years, and how can you let that chart a course for your own journey? Let’s go get the answers.

As we look at David, what I’d like to do is just examine a few of his characteristics, and then at the end, I’ll give you sort of a macro-view or key element to remember about him. And the first characteristic I’d like you to reflect on is that David was able to repent when he messed up. But what I want to point out here is that the word repent, to repent actually means that you are able to feel remorse and regret about something. You don’t just cognitively understand you’ve gone in the wrong direction, OK? You feel it in the pit of your gut, and it’s those feelings, those really super-strong emotions that then motivate you to do differently. So, when we talk about repentance, yes, it’s about changing your behavior. But the whole reason you start walking that new path is because you feel the regret around what you were doing before. And in that way, it’s very much an emotional experience. And we know from science that when you feel deeply, that’s memorable. So, that helps us continue to persist in the new behaviors that are better. We remember that feeling of regret and how it was painful, and that keeps us from going back to what we used to do. Now, when we look at a lot of leaders today and all the scandals that make the headlines, part of the reason we get so upset is because we don’t see this process happening. You know, the leader comes out, makes a statement, says all the right things, but if they go right back and do the same kind of thing again, you know, we can give them a little grace to learn, but at some point, we assume they didn’t feel what they said, that they weren’t sincere about it. But with David, he wasn’t trying to save face. When he repented, his regret went all the way through him. And because he felt that real regret, he owned up to the mistakes. Like we see him do after he slept with Bathsheba, he goes to God and asks for help. Psalm 51, he says, “Have mercy on me, O God…against You, only You, have I sinned.” And that’s not just a plea for God to have some compassion. He says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” He’s just absolutely desperate to feel happy and know his relationship with God is OK. So, if you wanna be like David, when you know you’ve done something you shouldn’t have, you let yourself feel the whole experience of that, and you don’t run. And you go to the people you hurt and you ask them for forgiveness. But more than that, you then take that and let it help you respond when those around you make their own mistakes. You can have empathy. Instead of, you know, raking people over the coals and getting lost in the offense, you can say, “I’m not gonna add to your pain, because I know what that pain is like.” And you can love on them and show them how to get out of where they are.

All of this connects to the idea of humility. And in the context of servant leadership, humility is where you say, “My why isn’t about me. I’m humble enough to not just think about myself, but to understand that authority and power are a gift. By myself, I don’t have any power. I only have the power others are willing to give me because I loved them and treated them well.” That can be just so, so hard, because the corporate world does such an amazing job of conditioning us to think egocentrically about our why. You know, we’re taught to say, “I’m doing this because I want x, y, or z. And to be honest, that’s the way I answered myself for a lot of years. I’d say things like, “I want to publish this book so I can be seen as an expert” or “I want to get more clients so that I financially can have more creative freedom” or whatever. And in some cases, humility can slow you down. And most of us, we don’t want to slow down. We want to reach the top as fast as we can. But there might be times where slowing down actually keeps you safe. If you read the story of how David came to be king, you’ll see that before David, there was King Saul. And David had the chance to kill Saul not once, but twice. He could have taken the throne by force. But both times, he said no and spared the person in authority, because he understood that real authority is God’s. In 1 Samuel 24:10, David says “I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord’s anointed.” So, even if David wasn’t so afraid of Saul, he absolutely had a healthy fear of God. He wouldn’t undermine God’s authority, even if it meant his own rise to leadership was slower. So, that was a case where humility kept David out of trouble. But if we look at the big picture, if you go back to Goliath, you know, David basically said, “I’m not defending my own honor — I’m defending the honor of God. I’m his servant and because I put myself at His feet, He’s gonna give me this victory.” And so what we see with David is that he was able to use humility as both the brakes and the gas. You know, he goes out to where the armies are camped out, and his original intent was just to bring his brothers some food. But because he was humble and recognized God’s sovereignty, with God’s help, in a matter of hours, he absolutely took control over that entire situation on God’s behalf. Good leaders are able to understand that, as long as they keep God first, they’re going to have both restraint and speed as they need them.

The next thing that really set David apart was that he took what he had practiced in one situation and applied it properly to new situations. And we see this on two levels. The first is, again, with Goliath. When he’s talking to Saul and volunteering to go fight, Saul doesn’t really understand how God has equipped David. And he essentially tells David, you know, “Look, you’re just a kid. You’re not a fighter. And this Goliath guy, he’s a warrior. He’s seriously bad news.” But David explains to Saul that he’s been fighting lions and bears and that he trusts that if God kept him safe from those, He’ll keep him safe from Goliath, too. And that’s life for a lot of us, right? Things aren’t always exactly apples to apples or perfectly the same as we’re used to, but if we can see how a new situation is similar enough to what we know and have practiced for, then we don’t have to be afraid of it. We can use what we’ve already acquired and come out swinging — or at least, like David, tossing a rock. But the second part of this is that David had a lot of experience as a caretaker. He was out with the sheep every day protecting them and making sure they stayed safe. And so, his life of service started way before he ever got a crown. And that experience of service gave him more credibility to lead Israel later. It was all essentially practice in watching out for people. And of course, we have Jesus who comes later as the Good Shepherd, right? But that’s part of why Jesus used the analogy He did when He referred to believers as His flock. He was doing the exact same job David did, but on top of being the Shepherd, he was also simultaneously the sacrifice. But the idea is, you can’t demand authority. David didn’t do that. You’ve just got to let God give it to you in His own timing and trust that He’s going to prepare you exactly as you need to be prepared.

Now, when you consider being a good shepherd, you know, of course, there’s bravery, like David showed against the lions and bears and against Goliath. But David was also a compassionate man, too. And I can tell you, that can be a more powerful weapon than fear. And if I look back at my own experience, growing up, I had a father who essentially tried to rule that way. It was all threats and meanness. And I’ll be really honest in that I’m still recovering from that in a lot of ways. It’s made it really hard to trust other people, especially if they have authority. But the thing is, I remember basically standing up to him at one point and telling him that respect is an earned gift. It comes when you love other people and do right by them. And the point there is that if you want people to really respect you, you can’t force them into it. You have to show them that you can consistently make good choices and that they’ll be safe under you. You do that, and people naturally will choose to follow. And part of making good choices is understanding the value of mercy, being empathetic as people learn. It’s understanding that kindness prompts reciprocation. That’s just how we’re built. And David’s compassion helped to elevate him many times through his leadership. I’ve already mentioned how he could have killed Saul and didn’t. But he took care of Saul’s grandson later when he didn’t have to, too. He gives him back his land and his seat at the royal table. And there are verses where we see David’s skill in war laid out, like in 1 Samuel where it talks about Saul striking down thousands but David striking down tens of thousands. But in 2 Samuel 22:36 and Psalm 18:35, David doesn’t point to his skill as a warrior as what made him great. You know what he says made him great? He says to God, “Your gentleness made me great.” This was a guy who could take out soldiers, no problem. Yet, he points to gentleness, to compassion as the thing that made the difference. And in showing gentleness, David is reflecting the God He serves, which is just a great reminder that if we want to lead others to God we have to do our best to imitate the heart God has.

Now, all of this boils down to this. David didn’t win because he was perfect. He messed up plenty of times. He was successful because of his posture in front of God. He didn’t lead for his own glory. He led to bring glory to God. He trusted in God’s character and did everything he could to make God central to the people, because he knew that if God was with him and Israel, there was no way to lose. We see that when he brings the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6. And the verse I’d like you to latch onto here is 1 Samuel 13:14, which says, “The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart.” Some scholars who interpret that verse interpret it not so much about David’s ability to resist sin being that great, but rather that God just had the authority to name whoever He wanted to be king. The preference and decision was ultimately the Lord’s. But you can also translate it to mean that David shared similar values and beliefs with God. He genuinely cared about what the Lord said was important, even if he failed a lot. It’s really a way of saying that God was looking for someone who could relate to Him. And we do that, too. I’ve used that after-my-own-heart phrase when I’ve met someone who’s like me. But, the last interpretation is to think of after-His-own-heart as David seeking God. You go after the things you want, not just out of ambition, but out of love and passion and hope. So, if you look at it that way, God wasn’t just seeking someone who shared his views. He was seeking someone who was willing to pursue Him, to really follow and seek Him and try to understand everything He’s about. And that totally makes sense to me. I mean, like with my husband, I don’t want a lukewarm relationship, right? I want my husband to be excited about me and make an effort to share with me. And our relationship with God is supposed to be deep like that. It’s supposed to be a connection where we truly appreciate and can’t wait to keep experiencing each other. And all the other good qualities David showed were a result of seeking that relationship with God over and over again, just every day getting up and fully surrendering to whatever God needed Him to do. He was not at all consistent in obedience, but he wanted to be with absolute sincerity, and God rewarded that. And that’s the lesson of this show today. Nobody is gonna obey God perfectly. Only Jesus could do that. I’ve certainly messed up way more than I wanna admit. But what marks you as God’s, what differentiates you and sets you up for success, is the willingness to keep seeking God’s direction no matter how many times you might get into the weeds. It’s the true desire to think beyond your own life and prioritize trying to look through God’s eyes instead of your own.

So, with all that said, would you join me in a prayer? Let’s just take a moment to honor God.

Lord, I thank you for Jesus today, Who was able to live in perfect obedience to You. If it weren’t for Him, we wouldn’t be able to come to You the way we can. But Lord, thank You, too, for David, because in him we have such a relatable example of what it looks like to pursue You and Your Son even as we mess up. And I pray that as it did for David, Your gentleness will teach and inspire us and make us stand out. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Well, like it or not, that’s it for today. If you haven’t already done it, I’d love to have you go to our sister site, faithfulontheclock.com. That’s the home base for all the extra content I put out related to the podcast. So, there’s articles, videos, social media archives, just a whole bunch of good stuff. A lot of it is completely free when you register, so check it out. Two weeks from today, we’re covering both procrastination and my personal nemesis, pre-crastination. How do both of those issues relate to anxiety, and how can you get rid of them? As we count down the days until that drops, be blessed.