A letter from Anthony...
Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart towards your statutes and not towards selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Fulfil your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness. Psalm 119:33-40
Have you ever thought about how much we learn incidentally as we go about our lives? All around us the world is changing, and as it changes we also change as we learn and adapt to it.
I recently watched a short Youtube video about a couple of teenagers who had been given the challenge of making a phone call on an old rotary phone. For most of us making a call on one of those old phones would be almost second nature, even though many of us haven’t used one for years. Those old phones are familiar to us because we either grew up using them, or we’ve seen our grandparents using them. Maybe some of us still have one in use? Over the years phone technology has changed drastically, and we have all slowly but surely adapted to push button phones, cordless phones and for many of us mobile phones.
To engage with the world around us it is important to be people who are willing to learn. And it is even more important for our walk with Jesus that we be learners, or disciples, of Him. It doesn’t matter how long we have been a Christian, or how many times we have read the Bible from cover to cover. There is always more that we can learn about God and His love for us displayed through Jesus, as the Holy Spirit opens up God’s word to us.
In the verses above the Psalmist is praying to the Lord asking Him to teach him, and to give him understanding of the Lord’s will for his life. In these verses the Psalmist is recognising God’s sovereignty, he is acknowledging that it is God who changes hearts, directs our paths, and removes our disgrace. The Psalmist already has a great deal of knowledge of God’s faithfulness and love, but despite having experienced so much of God’s faithfulness the Psalmist is recognising that it is important to keep being a learner, and a disciple of God’s word.
We are all different, and we all have different strengths and weaknesses, different gifts and abilities. But as followers of Jesus we are all called to be learners of God’s word, and to spend time reading and hearing the message He has given to us to speak into our lives.
May we continue to learn in His word of the forgiveness and hope that can only be found in Jesus, so that our hope in Him will “take away the disgrace” we “dread”. And may we, like the Psalmist, grow in our longing to read and hear God’s word, our eyes being turned away from worthless things, and being directed onto the path that He has for us; the path to eternal life through Jesus.
If you would like to see the video of a couple of teenagers trying to use a rotary phone here is the link so that you can check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI
In Christ, Anthony
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