“Behold God is exalted in His power, who is a teacher like Him?” Job 36:22
I have been a student for approximately 25 years of my almost 50. That is, to formally define a student, sitting under the direct teaching of a qualified instructor to learn a specific subject. As most of us have, I have learned grammar and rhetoric, science, history, algebra, calculus, geometry, business, physics, and a host of other topics. And currently I am a student like I have never been. Being a student of a new language in an immersive setting is quite the lesson in being a good student. Four hours of classroom instruction per day and with every word being in Spanish, it gives new definition to focus. Yes, the language learning is slowly progressing, but it brings to mind my most fearful part of being a student, the moments where you must take a test and you’re completely unprepared. That horrible feeling of laying eyes upon an exam and you have no idea what you’re even looking at. My heart drops at the mere mention. But just because you’re no longer in formal education doesn’t mean you’re done learning or that you’re done being a student. God is always teaching us, the question is, what kind of student are you today?
We have two more chapters of discourse from Elihu in the book of Job before God takes the reins and finally speaks. In chapter 36 Elihu continues his claim that in his few short years he has cornered the market on God’s wisdom. And as with anyone that claims to have garnered great knowledge, they must declare it to the world, otherwise how will the world know of their intellect? Side note, my personal experience has been that many times the wisest persons in the ways of God are not necessarily the preachers, teachers, and professors, but the silent. The ones that collect and ponder the Words of God and let them simmer in their soul like a good stew. Carefully mulling, processing, and allowing God to stir the pot until they have a beautiful cacophony of Godly reason and perspective. This however is not Elihu. He carelessly spends his thoughts as if he were wealthy in words. But as with all speech we encounter in this life, we are to sift for the gold and dispose of the unwanted soil. And in this panning process, we find a golden nugget from Elihu. God is the teacher of life, and our job is to be His lifelong student.
There are many aspects to being a good student. The most important is the to have the heart of a learner. Many years of my studenthood, especially in high school, I did not want to be there. Even in college I somewhat fought the learning process, seeing higher education as a necessity and not the privilege it is. Having a heart of a student is critical if you want to learn what God has to teach you. If you fight Him, the learning will be hard, the lessons tough, and the concepts foreign. But if you, in great humility, sit at the feet of the teacher, God promises to instruct you in His great wisdom. Another important factor of being a great student is effort, are you even trying? To excel in any subject you must study. If you are a student of God today, are you studying? It is no accident God left us His Word behin. It is the textbook of life, the very instruction manual for how God wishes His children to live their lives. Do you know what it says? A deep, daily personal study of the Word of God is imperative if you hope to grasp the many lessons God has to teach you every day. Lessons that will daily bring you inches closer to graduation….that is the sanctification of your life to become more like the teacher, Jesus Christ.
Today, don’t sit down to take the test of God and be forced to randomly answer those questions with guesses. Know the Word of God in your heart, know the teacher in your soul, and have the heart of a student before the greatest teacher the world has ever known…the Son of God, the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ.
“Show me Your ways, 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.” Psalm 24:4-5
Comments