The Lord looketh on the heart

When Saul no longer was worthy to be king, the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse to anoint one of his sons to be king. Jesse’s older sons were brought before Samuel, but they were rejected. “Is this all?” asked Samuel. The youngest, David, was tending the sheep. So David was called for and the Lord indicated that he should be anointed king.

The lesson we learn from this story is that the Lord doesn’t look on the outward appearance of people, but rather what is in the heart.

1 Samuel 16:6,7
6 ¶ And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.
7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

How then can I have a change of heart so that I am acceptable to he Lord? King Benjamin gave some indication in his farewell speech to the Nephites.

Mosiah 3:18,19
18 For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy; but men drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

The key then is to become as little children, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, then we can be saved through Christ’s atonement.