Learn

What skills have you learned?

That’s a bit of a trick question. What skill do you have that you haven’t learned? There are very few things we do as humans that we don’t have to, at some point in our lives, learn.

I believe that one of the greatest skills we can acquire is also often one of the rarest and most difficult to attain. Obedience.

Many people are under the impression that obedience should come naturally. Once we accept Christ, we should be good to go, right? Hardly.

Even Jesus had to learn to be obedient.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8 (ESV)

This is a loaded statement. We know, in the end, what Jesus suffered. Yet he was still obedient. He was not coerced into obedience, but took it upon himself as a man to be discipled, instructed, and directed to do the will of His Father.

It can be argued that Jesus was fully God and therefore, obedience came easily to Him. Do not forget that He was also fully man. Had He learned obedience in theory only, how could we then learn from Him? Someone who has lived in the city all their life could describe for you the Amazon Jungle, but how much more effective would the description be coming from someone who lives there? Yet even more so from someone who has seen both the city and the jungle.

During His life on earth, Jesus saw both the city and the jungle. And, not only did He see them, He experienced them to the fullest so that we could trust His word on both.

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:9 (ESV)

Daily Bible reading: Jeremiah 49-50, Hebrews 5

What Comes Out

You’ve probably heard it said that you should be careful what you allow into your mind and heart. And so you should. But the issue is not so much with what you allow in is as it is with what you allow out.

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.”

Mark 7:20 (ESV)

Speaking to his disciples, Jesus went on to say,

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark 7:21-23 (ESV)

Wait. What? Hasn’t the media been telling us the evil is all around us? That evil is being done to us? It doesn’t come out of us. Or does it?

Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.

Proverbs 4:23 (NCV)

I recently read an article that spoke about how people – here, college students (but it applies to all of us) – are told what to think. It doesn’t take much perusing through news sites to validate the truth of this statement. All around us, we – yes, we Christians – are allowing other people to tell us what to think and how we should think.

While we may not be able to prevent the bad things from going in, we can certainly stop the things that defile us from coming out.

Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.

Romans 12:2 (NCV)

Being inundated with worldly opinions all day every day, I need to ask myself if I am being shaped by the world or if I am shaping the world around me. Do I allow the thoughts being projected at me to shape the way I think or do I daily renew my mind to a new way of thinking – a way that is good and pleasing to God and perfect – so that I can shape the world around me?

Daily Bible reading: Numbers 21-23, Mark 7:14-8:10

Perfect

Do not be shaped by this world, instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.

Romans 12:2 (NCV)

I will never know God’s will or perfect plan for my life as long as I allow myself to be shaped by the world. If my thoughts, ideals, and beliefs come into like with the world around me, they cannot come into line with God’s.

If I am not hearing God’s voice, it is not because He has stopped speaking or has moved away, it is because I have clouded my mind with things that don’t belong there and no longer recognise the one voice that should never fade.

When I set my mind on godly things, on His new way of thinking, I open myself up to His will and His purpose. It is only then that I will know what is good and pleasing to Him. What is perfect.