God as Your Teacher

May 20, 2025

In Psalm 25, David makes a plea to God, asking Him to be his teacher.  “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.” (Psalm 25:4–5 NASB95) Have you ever asked God to be your teacher?  I’m convinced that God will be pleased to hear this prayer from us and to answer it.  But who is it that the Lord will teach? 

God will teach those who wait for Him.  To wait on God is to rely on Him.  It is to set your hope on Him and expect that He will answer you.  God is looking at us to see if we trust Him and Him alone.  He is pleased to help those who wait on Him.

Who will God teach?  It is the one who is humble. “He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.” (Psalm 25:9, NASB95) In order to be taught, we must be teachable.  This is the essence of humility—being teachable.  The humble person does not think too highly of themselves or their own knowledge, and therefore they are ready and willing to receive wisdom from God.  If we begin to believe that we have arrived or that we already know everything, we should not expect to receive any additional insight from God.  But God is pleased to teach the humble in His way.

Who will God teach?  It is the one who fears Him.  “Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” (Psalm 25:12 NASB95) The person who fears the Lord stands in awe of who He is.  They recognize His power, His wisdom, and His holiness.  The one who fears the Lord will be diligent to stay away from the path of sin because they have a healthy dread of displeasing Him.  The one who fears the Lord opens the word of God and trembles at what he reads.  It is this person that God will instruct in the way he should choose. 

Have you asked God to be your teacher?  Think of the wonderful blessings that will be ours if God Himself teaches us His paths and makes us to know His ways.  Let us ask God to teach us and let us also prepare our hearts to receive His teaching.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

Encountering God in the New Year

January 9, 2025

I would like to encourage each of us to be Bible readers in 2025.  In a world where there are always things eagerly competing for our attention (many of them good things), it is important to commit ourselves to hearing the voice of God clearly and often.  There is nothing more important that we could do.

The word of God is eternal.  “Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:7-8 NAS95)   When we pick up the word of God, we hold the eternal in our hands.  When we read the word of God and reflect on it, we fill our minds and hearts with everlasting truth. 

The word of God is transformative. If we will give ourselves to hearing and heeding the word, it will change us (as God allows).  Sometimes it causes in us a radical, immediate change, and other times it molds and shapes us steadily over time as the words take root in our hearts. 

Don’t you want this in your life?  Is something holding you back from regular Bible reading?

Setting a reading schedule is a great idea, but don’t get overly focused on the schedule.  What I mean is, if you have determined to read every day, don’t get discouraged and quit if you miss a day (or a few of them).  Just start back up again.  Reading at a pace slower than we intended is infinitely better than not reading at all.  And don’t get discouraged if you come upon sections of scripture that you don’t understand right away.  You are reading the words of God—some things are going to be hard to understand.  Also, don’t be deterred from reading because you feel overwhelmed at the thought of reading the entire Bible.  If you struggle with this, why not determine to read the New Testament?  Or the Psalms?  Or one chapter of Proverbs each day for a month?  Or perhaps you could choose a book of the Bible and get into it very deeply by slowly meditating on every word.

And in all of our reading, allow me to encourage you to not see it as a checklist to accomplish each day.  It is much more than that.  It is an encounter with the Living God.  It is time spent in the heart of God.  It is building a relationship with Him.  Let me also encourage you, as you read, to ask the Lord to be your teacher.  Let us pray as David did, “Make me know Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.” (Psalm 25:4-5 NAS95) May God lead each of us in His truth and teach us His ways.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin