TEACH ME!

 Psalm 119:12 "Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!"

Paul told Timothy to "be diligent to present yourself approve unto God (2 Tm.2:15)."  The King James Version translates this "Study to show yourself approved unto God." We take the KJV side of things a lot of times and use this to prove that we need to study (as in school work) God's word.  While this is not a wrong concept, this is not what Paul intended Timothy to understand. He wanted him to understand that being approved of God could come only from being diligent to present yourself everyday as God's workman.  With diligence in approaching God's Word, we also need an attitude of dependence.   Proverbs 2:2-5 states, "making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God."  Notice the statement in this..."call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding..."   This is an attitude far different from a more usual perfunctory prayer for God to teach us as we go to weekly Bible study.

Do we really believe we're dependent on the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding or do we  depend on our own intellectual ability in our study of Scripture?   I suspect that many of us, while giving lip service to dependence on the Spirit, actually depend on our own intellect.

It's difficult to maintain an attitude of diligence to be coupled with dependence. Yet, we must do this if we want to learn of God. He does not reward laziness, yet, neither does he reward a sinful self-confidence. Diligence when it is pursued with a sincere attitude and a reflection of total dependence on God. What we're talking about here is not just acquiring more knowledge of biblical truth. We have that.  Rather, we need to develop Bible-based convictions by which we are to live.  You might say, "Well...I have that." Unfortunately, too many Christians seem to approach Bible study in the same way they would approach academic subjects. We go to church, get our assignments, do our homework and move on to the next. When we do this, we're more apt to become proud over our "superior" knowledge of biblical truth"  than be humbled by what God would reveal to us. Our prayers should be to pray for knowledge of truth that will change our lives rather than simply inform our minds. Paul warned the Corinthians in 1 Cor.8:1, "we know that "all of us possess knowledge." This "knowledge" puffs up, but love builds up." 

We need to pray with the psalmist, "Teach me, o Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end" (Psalm 119:33).

Jim