Part three, Teach me

DEVOTION

PSALMS

TEACH ME

Ps 86

86:1 A prayer of David.

Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. 3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4 Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. 6 Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. 7 In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.  

14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life — men without regard for you. 15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.   17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

NIV

Day three, part three and we are looking about being taught his ways. In all reality is there anyone who can teach us his ways other than him? Although we hear sermons from our pastor and he expounds on the word of God and exposes truths within, the Spirit reveals the truth to us. We might hear one of the great media preachers and get more insights, but it is the Spirit within who reveals the truth. We could read some book by one of the prolific writers of our time that explains something about the scriptures, but it is the Spirit within who reveals the truth. The Lord is who teaches us his ways. All the sermons, books, or other methods of absorbing information about the ways of the Lord might give us a moment to pause and reflect, but when the Lord teaches us is when we will walk in his truth. This is the central theme about not having a divided heart, so we can revere him and his name. What does a divided heart look like? It seems simple enough to understand. It looks like that trying to serve two masters. We give God part of our heart, but we want the other part for our own desires. We want that free will to decide what we want to do, where we want to live, where we want to work,  what type of career we have, when we want to retire, how much we want to have, both money and material goods. But the free will was only good for one ticket, which was the free will to choose God, or refuse him. Once we choose God, by our free will, we submitted it him. That ticket was punched and our will now is in submission to his will. He is our Lord and Master, our King, our Sovereign. This is the idea of praising you, O Lord my God with all my heart. That means all, not part, not some, not with a divided heart. We will praise God, only God and we will do that with an undivided heart for he alone can teach us his ways and he alone can save us. What in this world can offer us what God offers? Although salvation is a great reward, when we just look at what we get from accepting Jesus. It still is making everything about us. Our reward, our salvation, Jesus is mine, Oh what a foretaste of Glory divine. No, it is about his ways. We learn to walk in his truth from God himself. The idea is that we are his and he teaches us how to walk in his ways, so that we are being in him. Yes, he is our God, but more importantly we are his people. We belong to him, he does not belong to us. Life should be God centered, not people centered. We will glorify his name for indeed he has delivered us from the grave. Yet not just to live forever for ourselves, but so we will praise him forever. Teach me your ways, Oh Lord.