Who is the King of your heart?

2 Samuel ch. 22

I am reminded of King Saul in the Bible, 2 Samuel chapter 22, and how he became so jealous of David, killed all of the priests so they could no longer bless and anoint David, the God appointed heir to the throne of Israel.

King Saul became so enraged with jealousy, he even attempted to kill David. All because David continued to grow in favor with both God and man, while the people, the Israelites grew more and more weary of King Saul.

In all of his efforts to oppose David, he only made it worse for himself, because he failed to honor and serve God. Instead, he became increasingly full of himself, and his ego
Edged
God
Out.

In the end he failed miserably, and all of his “get David” efforts only proved to lift David up, more and more before God. David’s heart was fully committed to God’s will and authority. Therefore, David succeeded in his service to God and the Israelites,  while Saul failed, continuously and miserably. This narrative serves as a biblical example of successful leadership, and how God Almighty puts kings and presidents and all heads of state and government leadership into place, holds them accountable, and removes them when they fail to serve the people He places in their charge!

This is also true of all of us as the head of our own internal kingdom, the one that starts in our hearts. Here we must decide, every day, whom we will serve; either ourselves in our own self-centered world, or relinquish the throne of our hearts to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

When Christ is seated on the throne of our hearts, as He was with David, we will become “servants of the Lord” instead of just serving ourselves and attempting to control our own destiny. In Christ, we have the Holy Spirit, who equips us with the ability to produce fruit in our lives.

Among this fruit of the Spirit is, self control, which literally means the God given authority and ability the control one’s own life; appetites, emotions and actions. In Christ, we are taking every single thought captive and submitting it to the authority of Christ, the King of our hearts. Instead of being controlled by our hearts, the Holy Spirit develops within each of us, the mind of Christ, and we are enabled to exercise that Spirit led fruit of self-control

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT
[22] But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.22-23.NLT