[Devoted1]

"Listening To The Teacher"
By: Zach Wood
Psalm 25:4-5
Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your
truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.


I remember back to my childhood, when I was going to school, how hard of a time I had listening to what my teachers instructed. They taught well (as far as I can remember), but often I had trouble listening and paying attention. Either I wasn't listening to instructions, or I heard instructions that I couldn't quite understand. In most cases, my teachers gave me hope by encouraging me to ask questions. However, it was always my choice whether or not to listen and accept the advice given. Many of us can probably relate to these experiences from our childhood. What child doesn't go through a process of struggling and asking questions? It's part of learning.

As I think through the past years of my life, I've had quite a few "teachers" that have given me advice and counsel and it's been up to me to either take the advice or follow my own way. I've had teachers in high school, college and even now in my adult life. It's great to have people who are older giving advice in love because they want to see me grow and learn more, not just about life, but about God. Learning about life is great, but learning about God is even better!

This Psalm presents how our attitude should be as we consider the teachings God gives us in our lives each day. We have to make the choice to allow God to show us His ways. He tries, but if we're stubborn and wanting to do our own thing and live our own ways, He has a hard time getting through. He's still there waiting for us to listen, but it's harder for Him to get through to us because of our ignorance to His leading and instructing. We need nothing more than to be guided in His Truth. Not the world's truth, but His Truth. When we follow Christ and obey His Word, we are declaring what the last part of this passage proclaims, "my hope is in you all day long". It's quite simple. If we are not following His leading, then our hope is not in Him. Our hope ends up being in whatever temporary crutch we hang onto for the moment. But, if our minds are set on Christ and we are obeying what He tells us to do, then we have hope in Him and Him alone. We would all agree that is the way to live, but why do so many of us struggle living with that hope?

We need to listen to the greatest teacher that ever lived! There are a lot of teachers in the world today. Many of them are outstanding and have received numerous awards for their merit and dedication to students. That's wonderful! But as wonderful as they are, they are human, imperfect, and make mistakes. The greatest teacher that ever lived is without mistakes and is the greatest teacher we could ever learn from. We need to listen to the teacher's instructions. If we don't, we live in ignorance and life tends to fall apart around us. Listening to Christ and accepting His instructions is the only way to live.