The Blessing of Being Teachable

When praying over this week's memory verse to prepare it for our community, I felt my attention focus on the first word in the verse, teach. The word is in imperative case, which is a command. Obviously David, the writer of this psalm, knows he cannot command anything from God. So what can we draw from this?

He knows God will teach him. He is telling God "I am human, you are God, teach me." He knows he can't learn anything apart from God. Imagine if a student showed up to their teacher's lessons this way. How much more would that student learn! If the student will throw out out distraction, stubbornness, laziness and pride, when tests come the student would be excited to show the teacher what they learned, wouldn't they?

It got me thinking how we can be like this in the classroom of life. It might be why Jesus' brother James wrote "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance" (James 1:2-3). While it's tough to imagine, the early church felt like this when persecuted. When Peter and John left the Sanhedrin, who had just beaten them, the went away rejoicing. Why? Acts 5:41b makes it clear: "..because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name."

I can't in good conscience say that I always rejoice like Peter and John did (in far less difficult circumstances I'll add). But I have met persecution because of my faith. When I leaned into it and relied more on the Lord than on myself, God has been a faithful teacher. Friends, when God allows us to face challenging circumstances, it is because He is allowing us to see Him in a new way. He's drawing us closer to himself. Since God is infinite, so is His compassion. Whatever we face on a daily basis has been approved by God to train and teach us.

If you're joining along this week with our community to memorize this verse, I pray that we continue to remain teachable this week regardless of what lesson we're learning!