Teachable Heart

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – April 24, 2017

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying God is one and there is no other but him.”   When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God…” Mark 12:32, 34a

Jesus affirms a teachable heart for He knows it has potential to learn and understand the things of God. Thus, a teachable heart is positioned to receive truth and has an attitude with more questions than answers.

However, a teachable heart does recognize truth when it comes knocking. It invites truth in to be examined, understood, and applied. Truth invigorates the teachable heart, and there is a rush of spiritual adrenaline when it intersects with an open mind and heart. Pride plateaus in its learning, but a teachable heart continues to scale the mountain of truth. Thus, when God discovers someone who is teachable, He calls him wise.

Wisdom comes from God; therefore, a teachable heart learns the ways of God.  God is not offended by teachability, though there is a tension that arises when truth begins to facilitate changes in behavior and attitude. This change of heart seems somewhat innocuous from the outside looking in, but most of us do not like to be told what to do.

Change doesn’t come easily, even as you understand that God has your best interest in mind. But the transformation is telling. Your character and behavior fall more in line with Jesus’; your spouse and children notice something different; your patience, rather than your intimidation, becomes dominant; your bad beliefs will be replaced with good ones; so let your teachable heart start first with God.

God is one. He is not many gods, but one God. He is not a mini-god, but the great and glorious God of the galaxies. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all one God. His oneness is to be worshiped and celebrated. Thus, your love relationship with the one true God is not to be rivaled by any other gods. Any acceptance of other gods is unacceptable to God. He is jealous for you. Your love for anyone or anything will pale in relation to your love for Christ.

To love God is to make room for God in all aspects of your life. You love Him when you love others, when you give sacrificially, when you strive for excellence in your work, and when you pray for and forgive others. Love is action; therefore, love Him and allow Him to love you. Let His expectations mold yours because what God thinks trumps any other thinking. The Holy Spirit within you has the answers to the questions that consume your thinking. Follow His internal promptings, not the external clamor.

What you believed yesterday will be dwarfed by what you learn tomorrow. Know God, love God, learn of Him and from Him. He affirms a teachable heart as one who fears the Lord.

The Bible teaches, “Assemble the people—men, women, and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 31:12). Stay teachable in your understanding of God.

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