You.

The Lord does not look at the.

Things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

One Samuel 16, verse seven.

Those are the words God spoke to Samuel as he set off on a.

Mission to find and anoint the new king of Israel.

After God had rejected King Saul, Samuel, like most of us, was vulnerable to the temptation to let outward appearance determine his choices. But we human beings don't look at the things the way God does, and.

Our definition of character, right and wrong.

And success is often very different from God's definition. I heard the story of a student in Bible College who received a d on one of his sermon outlines. He had worked hard on the assignment, had bathed it in prayer, and had even preached the sermon the preceding Sunday. Crushed by the low grade, he asked his preaching professor for an explanation. The professor said that the outline was.

Weak, the content of the sermon was.

Bland, and that the overall product was.

Simply not good enough to be effective.

But professor, the student replied, when I preached this sermon last Sunday, 19 people came forward to accept Christ. The power of God in any situation cannot be measured by human standards or expectations.

While we should strive for excellence in everything we do, we must remember that.

God can and does bless the effort of every Christian who faithfully does his or her best for the Lord. We shouldn't worry about how other people judge our character or our efforts. Instead, we should simply do our best.

To please the Lord who knows our heart and let him be the judge.

This has been your thought for the.

Day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California.

If you have questions or comments for.

Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected].

Have a great day, and we hope.

You'Ll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve.

Opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.