Emmanuel Okoro (aka MrLift)

The Heart of the Matter Is the Matter of the Heart You can impress people with your appearance, but you cannot deceive God with your heart. Scripture “But GOD told Samuel, ‘Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. I've already eliminated him. GOD judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; GOD looks into the heart.’” ( 1 Samuel 16:7 MSG) Explanation The condition of the heart matters to God. The Bible describes the human heart as desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), yet its true condition is not written on the face. This is why judging people by appearances can be dangerously misleading. When God rejected Saul as king, He sought a replacement. Saul had the appearance and stature of a king, but his heart was not right with God. David, whom God chose to replace him, was described as a man after God's heart (1 Samuel 13:14). God looks beyond what impresses people to what matters to Him. Our ap...

Look and Think What you see may look right, but is it God's choice? Scripture “When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, ‘Here he is! GOD’s anointed!’” (1 Samuel 16:6)  Explanation Looks can be deceiving. We have all been deceived by people who looked good until their character was revealed, or those who appeared capable but failed to deliver on their promises. Samuel made the same mistake. He took one look at Eliab and concluded that he was God's choice for the next king of Israel. Samuel saw what looked right, but he needed God's guidance to identify who was truly right. Many times, we make decisions based on what we see and how we interpret it. God gave us brains to think, but some decisions demand more than our reasoning. What looks right to us may not be right in God's sight. God reminded Samuel that appearances are not everything (1 Samuel 16:7). We must learn to look beyond what our eyes can see and allow God to guide our judgement...

I Have Sinned, Yet Honour Me? You want the honour without the humility, the title without the substance, and the respect without the responsibility. Is that not entitlement? Scripture “Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.” — 1 Samuel 15:30 (KJV) Explanation Saul confessed his sin, yet his greatest concern was still his honour before the people. He wanted to preserve his image even after compromising his obedience to God. This is the danger of entitlement: wanting to retain the honour of a position without accepting the consequences of our actions. How often do we behave like Saul, more concerned about what people think of us than what God sees in us? We want respect despite our failures, recognition without responsibility, and honour without the humility that makes us honourable. Beloved, God is more interested in your heart than yo...

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say Your words are a mirror of your heart. If your heart is crooked, your words will eventually expose it. Scripture “Israel's God-of-Glory doesn't deceive and he doesn't dither. He says what he means and means what he says.” (1 Samuel 15:29 MSG) Explanation One mark of a person of integrity is the ability to say what they mean and mean what they say. God demonstrates this perfectly. He does not lie, deceive, or make empty promises. His words reflect His nature. Our words reveal who we really are. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). In other words, our words are the overflow of our inner lives. Our thoughts influence our words, and our words influence our actions and relationships. That is why Solomon gives us this instruction: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”(Proverbs 4:23 KJV) The heart is the breeding ground of our words. What we repe...

A Better Man Than You Are What if God Himself told you that someone else is a better man than you? Not your boss. Not your colleague. Not your competitor. God. That would be a difficult verdict to swallow. We can argue with people, defend our choices and explain our shortcomings. But when God says, “He is a better man than you are,” there is nowhere left to hide. The real question, then, is not “Am I better than him?” It is: “Am I becoming the kind of man God calls better?” Scripture “Samuel said, ‘GOD has just now torn the kingdom from you, and handed it over to your neighbor, a better man than you are.’” ( 1 Samuel 15:28 ) Explanation God had rejected Saul as king. And He did not merely tell Saul that the kingdom would be taken from him; He told him why another would receive it—a man who was better than him . But what does “better” really mean? Is it intelligence? Achievement? Influence? Leadership ability? The capacity to win battles? The ability to relate wel...

Pleasing People The moment pleasing people becomes more important than pleasing God, their approval becomes your prison. It is good to care about people. But when the fear of disappointing them becomes greater than the fear of disobeying God, something is wrong. Saul discovered this the hard way. Scripture “Saul gave in and confessed, ‘I've sinned. I've trampled roughshod over GOD's Word and your instructions. I cared more about pleasing the people. I let them tell me what to do.’”( 1 Samuel 15:24 ) Explanation Saul knew what God had commanded, but he allowed the people's voice to become louder than God's. Earlier, we get a glimpse of how Saul may have struggled with significance. When people saw him prophesying, they asked “What has come over him, who is nobody but the son of Kish?”( 1 Sam. 10:11 AMP ) People saw the son of Kish; God saw the king He had chosen. The Bible does not explicitly say that Saul's people-pleasing came from this ear...