We are all taught by someone? We are taught by our parents, our teachers in school, our friends, the news, and the list could go on and on. Everything we know we learned from someone, either by word or example. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself who you were learning from?
The beliefs you hold in your life, the lessons you have learned that you choose to live by and make decisions by, where did they come from? How have your teachers influenced your everyday life?
We must be aware of who our teachers are because we start to become like them. Their personal preferences may become ours, their beliefs, even their prejudices, and their assumptions may become part of our story even if we do not realize it.
There was a story I heard a long time ago, and I cannot remember where to give proper credit, about a newlywed woman preparing a roast for her husband. He watched as she cut off the end of the roast and discarded it then asked her why she did it that way. She didn’t know, she just knew that her mother always had, so the young woman called up her mother only to receive the same answer, “I don’t know, my mother always did.” She then called up her grandmother to which her grandmother replied, “I cut off the end and set it aside because my pan was too small to hold the whole roast.”
We pick up things from our teachers and carry them into our own lives when they may not even know where they learned them or the reasons behind the lessons. We must be on guard always, making sure what we are learning is true and not just a habit or assumption of another.
We need to learn to listen to the most excellent teacher of all, the one who loves us and want the absolute best for us, our Lord and Father. He wants us to learn from Him, to listen to Him, and receive His instructions for our life.
Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:3 that “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” He has taught us everything we need to know that pertains to living in this world and living in godliness. Are we learning from Him or are we listening to other teachers?
In the book of Isaiah, he writes about the one who teaches us.
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”
Isaiah 48:17-18
Isaiah records God saying that He teaches us to profit and leads us in the way we should go. He teaches us how to live in this world to be successful (success according to God’s standards, not mankind’s) and says that if we heed Him, our peace would be like a river! His ways, His teachings lead us to something this world can never give us, true peace.
I want you to consider who your teachers have been? What have they taught you about life? About relationships? About loving others? About your emotions? About forgiveness?
Are you learning from God the things that pertain to this life or are you learning from the world?
We can learn so much with God as our teacher. Everyday things that are useful to experiencing life, spiritual things that will save us, there is so much to be gained from God.
In Isaiah 28:23-29, Isaiah even talks about how the farmer and Plowman are taught the proper way to handle seeds by God. He closes with,
“This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”
Verse 29.
God’s teaching and counsel are wonderful! His guidance is excellent! Let Him be your teacher and find peace today!
In Christian Love,
