An Undivided Mind

"Teach me Your way, Yahweh, and I will live by Your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name. I will praise You with all my heart, Lord my God, and I will honor Your name forever" (Ps. 86:11-12, HCSB).

Do you ever feel like your mind is divided in its loyalties? Do you feel the necessity of this prayer? I find myself in constant need of instruction. It feels as if I forget a lesson nearly as quickly as I learn it. I have to be remind again and again. Do you ever feel that way?

The psalmist recognizes that he personally needs to be instructed by God if he is to live God's truth. He knows that God must give him an undivided heart. The psalmist is powerless to heal the divide within. It will take an act of God to bring his loyalties into a singular focus.

What is truly impressive in this prayer is that the psalmist wants an undivided mind so that he may fear the Lord. Before you cue the thunder sound effects, realize that when the Bible speaks of fear of the Lord, it focuses more on reverence and less on terror. Fear of the Lord means that we hate evil (Prov. 8:13). It means that we understand the God is holy, and in that holiness he hates sin.

God's very nature detests sin. If I asked you to eat a worm, you might be appalled. That feeling of revulsion gives you a slight glimmer of understanding when it comes to understanding how the Holy One views sin. In his holiness, God acts as the Righteous Judge, condemning all evil. Sin then becomes an act of treason against a holy God.

As we experience the love of God, through his gracious mercy, we come to hate sin because it offends our loving Father. In reverence, we seek to put off all sin because it is an affront to the righteous nature of God, who sent his Son to die in our place and pay our sin debt. When our allegiance is torn, so that we do not fear God as we should, we dishonor Christ's sacrifice.

As a person who struggles with sin (so that  I find myself doing the evil I hate, while yearning to do good), I find this prayer necessary. Apart from the Spirit's work in my life, I would not live God's truth. If the Spirit was not working in me to will and do the work of God (see Phil. 1:13), I would not desire to do the will of God. So I pray, "Lord, give me an undivided mind to fear Your name."

Receiving Instruction

"Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge" (Prov. 19:27, ESV).

Most people would do well to take a course on listening. Although, the difficulty with such a class is that those taking it would, most likely, lack the skills and ability to listen to there instructor. I am convinced that most of us need to learn how to listen. When I say listen, I do not mean hear. I mean the ability to actually (and accurately) understand what the other person is trying to say. Sometimes, what we hear and what we think we hear are two different things. It's easy to tune someone out, because we don't want to hear what they are saying.

However, Solomon warns us not to tune out. He states, "Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge." Ceasing to hear instruction means that one is not heeding that instruction. The words are perceived by the ear, but not by the will. Unwillingness to learn is a moral problem not intellectual. What is being warned against hear is the rejection of wisdom.

To stray from the words of knowledge is to stray from the truth. It is to stray from life. The path of folly is one that ends in destruction. Foolishness kills those who indulge in it. Thus, the wise are those who forsake foolishness. The wise surround themselves with wise counselors and heed instruction. They look to those who have seen more, who know more. They accept responsibility for their mistakes, and receive rebuke where necessary. Those who walk in the words of knowledge hear instruction. How well do you receive instruction?

Heed Reproof

"He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing" (Prov. 29:1).

There is a stern warning in this verse. We would do well to heed it. Many people in our culture talk as if God is obligated to continually deal with a person. But is God so obligated? Would it be unfair of God to cease dealing with a person?

While this verse doesn't reference God directly, it does speak to His work. In the context of Proverbs, the wise man and the fool are always in sight. This verse speaks of one "often reproved" who continues to stiffen his neck. Such a person is a fool. This passage warns that the one who refuses to hear reproof will ultimately be destroyed.

There comes a point where God says enough. The comes a time when the Holy Spirit ceases to deal with the heart of men. We are warned in Hebrews that there is a day appointed for salvation and that day is today. All of us are only a vapor. Our lives pass so quickly there is not time to waste. When we are called to turn from sin and seek the Lord we must do so with out delay. If we put it off, again and again, we only invite destruction.

The passage warns that repeated failure to heed reproof brings a brokenness that cannot be healed. How much pain could be avoided if people would not harden their hearts to the Spirit of God? How much chastisement could God's people avoid if they would quick turn and repent? What kind of confidence can a man have in his salvation if he continually ignores God's Word and continues in sin to his destruction?

May the Lord teach us humility. May he lead us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. May we follow in obedient trust and never experience the brokenness the comes from continually stiffening our necks.

In Search of Wisdom

A wise man once said, "Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the Lord is instruction is wisdom, and humility comes before honor" (Prov. 15:32-33). I have a sneaking suspicion that God is trying to tell me something. It seems that everywhere I turn in the Scriptures I am confronted with the concept of being teachable.

I have always assumed I am teachable, but I am beginning to have my doubts. I know that by reading a chapter of Proverbs a day that I will face a fair amount of references to being teachable, but even in my studies elsewhere this issue has been visited and revisited. I think there is a danger in studying that often goes unaddressed. I fear that we often forget that learning facts is not the same a being teachable. We may sit in Sunday school and hear something we had not known before, and yet our lives might not be changed. Or we may hear something in a sermon that we had not previously considered, and yet we often do little about it.

Being a disciple is not about collecting facts like an encyclopedia. It is more like being a toolbox. Information, knowledge, and experience are gathered together like tools, so that we may effectively accomplish the tasks set apart for us by the Lord. Being teachable means that we not only possess some tools, but we are willing to gather more with the full intention of learning to master the new ones, as well as the old. When the Scriptures call us to teachability, or discipleship, they call us to become apprentices who study under the Master. We study the tools that he has given us. We learn all their uses. We watch to see how he uses them and we imitate his actions. He watches us as we use them and corrects us when we err. Skill comes through constant, consistent, correct practice.

I want to be more teachable. I want a humble heart that handles correction with gratitude. I want to learn the art of skillful living, often referred to as wisdom. Lord, open my heart to your Word that I may be corrected, purified and wise. Amen!

Teachability

Have you ever asked yourself how teachable you are? I don't mean how easily you can acquire new facts or how much you remember of what you have studied. I mean how open to correction are you? Does it bother you when someone corrects your pronunciation? Are you easily offended when someone offers you unsolicited advice? Imagine, you are wearing a new shirt and someone says to you, "that would look better on you if you lost ten pounds." How would you respond? Would you be hurt? Angry? On the treadmill as soon as you got home? Would you throw a fit or maybe a fist? Would you thank them for their honesty?

How teachable are you when it comes to spiritual matters? We must always remember that humanity is just flawed, its ruined. The Scriptures teach us that none of us are capable of pleasing God in our natural state (see Romans 3:10-18). The good news is that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, died for our sin, as a substitute, and rose from the grave. Through Christ's sacrificial death, God extends to us forgiveness and fellowship if we will turn from sin and trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior. When we trust in Jesus, God discards our old natures, and creates in us a new one that shares in his righteousness (2 Cor 5:17-20).

Christians are disciples, which means we are students of Jesus. We are not students in the modern sense where we sit and listen for a few hours to the teacher, take a few tests, and do a little homework before we call it a day. We are students in the ancient sense. In Jesus' day, a disciple sought not only to understand his teacher, but to follow his example. They became imitators of their master. We are to be imitators of Christ. Thus, Christianity is teaching driven. After we get saved (justified) we enter into the process of being made holy (sanctified). Sanctification is a constant and continual learning process. If Christianity is a life long learning process where redeemed sinners are taught how to live in Christ's righteousness, then teachability is an important trait to possess. Let me ask again, "how teachable are you?".

Solomon said, "Whoever heeds instruction is on the path of life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray" (Prov. 10:17). The Scriptures were given to instruct us. Paul reminds us that they profit us through teaching, rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16).

By "teaching" Paul means that Scripture are the only source for sound doctrine. As Monticello's articles of faith state, "The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience." "Rebuking" means that the Word convicts us of our sin. It addresses our intellect correcting errors in thought and reasoning. Scriptures move us away from misunderstandings, misapplications, and bad theology. "Correction" addresses the slumbering conscience with sharp warning of impending judgement. It insists on the return to the correct path of Christian living. "Training in righteousness" means that the Scriptures teach us how to live stable, obedient, and moral lives. They teach us to walk in wisdom.

We are called to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). As the author of Hebrews warned, the lack of teachability is a dangerous sign something is wrong (Heb 5:11-6:12). He goes on to compare spiritual immaturity to a person (well past the age of weening) who is still dependant upon milk. He states that such a dependence on milk reveals their lack of skill (though a lack of use) with the teachings of righteousness (the Scriptures). They have changed, because they don't live the Word.

Again we return to the question, "How teachable are you?" When you hear something you have never heard before in a class or from the pulpit, do you reject it out-of-hand immediately because it is new? Or do search the Scriptures to see if it is true? When you hear something you disagree how do you assess its value? Do you weigh its value through careful reflection upon the Scriptures or upon the weight of your opinion? Do you seek to apply every message and lesson to your life or do you assume that they really only apply to others?

I don't know how you answer the question, "How teachable are you?". But I have to frequently ask the Lord to make me more teachable. I am like the father who said to Jesus, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." I still struggle. I want to be open to correction and fulfill James' command: "be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19). It is still hard, but not impossible. With God all things are possible. And in Christ we can do all things, because he strengthens us (see Phil 4:11-13). My hope is that we all increase in teachability.