His Child

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
HIS CHILD
Prov 4:1-4
Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. 2 I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a boy in my father's house, still tender, and an only child of my mother, 4 he taught me and said, "Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.
NIV
I suppose it is possible to read the word of God, to listen to the teaching from his wisdom and not pay attention. I suppose I could just read it for the intellectual knowledge of the history as any historic document would serve and not see any application for my life. I think when I was a spiritual child that is what I did, reading the Bible from cover to cover, just so I had the information which was within. I was finding out who was who, the accounts of all those people of the past and how everything came to be. I read the account of Jesus, who he was, and then all the teachings which followed. Then something began to happen. I was no longer reading for history, but for my life. My Father was teaching me his ways, his truths, his wisdom and I began to gain understanding into who he was, is and will be and what he wanted for my life. How great it is to be but a child, open and pliable to the teaching and instruction of my Father. I think as an adult it is more difficult to accept the instructions from a father than as a child. I do not think I could ever think I am not a child of God. How could I be an adult of God? The point is to remain his child, to remain pliable and open, listening, learning, paying attention, and gaining understanding of his teachings. As an adult I sure could get set in my ways, not being open to new ideas, new thoughts, new teaching, new instructions, or better understanding and in a sense that would be forsaking his teaching. I must remain tender, always open and ready to hear from my Father and not doing that with one ear only. I cannot simply make God a part of my life, a part of my heart, keeping a portion for myself. No, I must pay attention and listen with both ears, with my entire mind, my spirit, my heart, giving one hundred percent of me to his teachings. There is death otherwise, that I am certain of. If as an adult I forsake the continued process of listening and learning and gaining more understanding I lose out on so much. No, I shall forever be a child, his child.