"Lighting the Fire"
Jotting – Week 4

Learn to Be Taught by God

In the early years of our marriage, my husband put up with my stacks of paper, my hidden boxes of “stuff,” my lack of focus. And he would tell me, “All you have to do is get organized.” Well, I tried. I made lists. I’d go through a box, only to save three quarters of the contents or lose hours reading things that should have been disposed of years before. My sister sent me the The Messies Manual, which I promptly misplaced. I bought the book Taming the Paper Tiger, but couldn’t follow through. And in the meantime, other boxes opened their emptiness for my collections, other stacks of papers accumulated. I was spinning my wheels–and my head often spun in frustration.

Finally, after 25 years, I told Lou, “You keep telling me to get organized, but you’ve never shown me how.” Well, in the last 15 years of our marriage, my husband has been strangely quiet about my lack of organization. To be fair, he has tried to teach me: he’s given me a PDA; he’s made lists and given me directions to follow. But most of the time, he sighs, rolls his eyes, or shakes his head, but he has never said to me again, “All you have to do is get organized.” I think he sees me as a hopeless case, because, though he himself is extremely well organized, he sees me as too severely organizationally challenged to ever be so.

I do need a teacher. For the piles on my desk to disappear, the stacks hidden in drawers and boxes to get taken care of, I need to be told what to do with the papers, how to file, what to throw away, how to make decisions that will free me from the burden my collector’s heart hangs on to.

On the other hand, I need to be willing to learn–and to follow directions in getting my place in order. The books I have bought, the web sites I have visited, the sage advice from training sessions, all well-intentioned and all serious about getting me organized, do me absolutely no good if I don’t do what they tell me to do. FlyLady says “Fifteen minutes a day.” Maybe if I start with five ... .

Read Psalm 25. Note how many times the psalmist uses the word “teach” in this psalm. Here, David earnestly desires to know God and to learn from Him. Through prayer, he pleads with God to teach him His paths, His truth, for God to lead him in the way of salvation. David acknowledges his sinfulness before God and his need for God’s merciful forgiveness. At the same time, he realizes that only God can truly teach him the way he should go, the path he should take.

In this psalm, David casts himself on the mercy and love of God; he knows that of himself he can do nothing; he wanders and is lost without the Lord to guide and instruct him. He trusts God to bring him out of his despair and pain, to show him what to do for God and His kingdom.

When we dig into Scripture for ourselves, when we pray for God’s strong guiding hand, for His wisdom and strength, when we open ourselves by the power of the Spirit, to be taught by God, He will certainly send us what we need. He will guide our feet on the paths they should take, our hands for service to meet the needs of others, our voices to proclaim the Good News of salvation in Jesus.

Without God’s guiding hand and teaching heart, we flounder in knowing what He wants us to do for Him. We miss opportunities to witness. We more easily forget to give out that tract, that gospel portion to the clerk, the waitress, or neighbor. We don’t hear the despair in the question of a friend; our eyes aren’t open to the needs of others; we miss the openings the Spirit sends our way.

Our hearts can be burdened with things that burden the heart of God, but until we are willing to have the Lord teach us–and to rely on His power to carry out the tasks He gives us, we will only carry the heaviness with us and not experience the joy of being led by Him and the lightness of heart that we want others to experience as well.

Many verses in Psalm 119 ask God to “teach” us His laws, His statues. Read through this entire psalm, or these selected verses: 12, 26, 29, 33, 64, 66, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171. Choose a verse a day to meditate on.

Also consider:

“Good and upright is the LORD;
         Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
 The humble He guides in justice,
         And the humble He teaches His way.” Psalm 25:8-9

“Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.” Psalm 143:10

Pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, we are so in need of being taught by You, to learn from You the things that touch Your heart–and that You want to touch our hearts. Lead us in Your way. Teach us to follow You and obey Your directions for our lives so that others may desire You for their Father and Jesus as their Savior. In His name we pray. Amen.