God’s Instruction

It has been a busy week with the semester’s start, so I’ve been unable to post my daily threads. But like any good teacher, all of last week’s concepts will be reviewed on a bulletin board!

Teachers love bulletin boards. They serve as visual reminders of important concepts and prompts for calls to action. Generally, teachers do not create a bulletin board full of complicated text or graphics. Instead, they are shortened, and concise ideas – maybe linked to an image or basic graph/timeline. So, below is perhaps a bulletin board God would build for His pupils – reminding us of some concepts related to His teachings and instructions.

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. God teaches us the way we should go because He loves us.

Exodus 24:12 – The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” God carefully wrote out His laws with His own hand so that we would know they were from Him.

Romans 15:4 – For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Everything recorded in the Old Testament could (and should) be used for our learning so that we could know God keeps His promises, delivers His people, and that His character has not changed. This should bring us immense hope and encouragement to follow in His ways.

2 Tim. 3:16 – 17 – All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Scriptures are directly from God which means that are profitable in every way for us as God’s pupils. They provide us teaching, correction, training, and warnings. God has given us everything we need to be complete and ready to do good works.

Joshua 1:8 –  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. God’s instruction should never depart from our minds. We must think and dwell on it constantly. It is the only way to keep the Devil at bay. God ensures us that if we do this He will bless us.

Psalm 119:165 – Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. Those who love to learn from God will never stumble and fall. God’s law keeps us from falling.

For those who ignore God’s instruction and choose to discount His reminders, Solomon tells us:

If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable. – Proverbs 28

If we turn our ears away from God’s teachings and then dare to approach Him in prayer, He finds our prayers detestable. Other versions call them an abomination. It is no different than a student blatantly ignoring all of their teacher’s instructions, rules, and policies and then asking for an A, bonus points, or the rewards the rest of the class receives for obedience. Teachers dislike students who willfully and repeatedly ignore them only to ask them for something else right after they are done speaking. Why? Because in these cases the root cause of a student’s ignorance or mistakes is disrepect. The student does not respect the teacher so they do not listen yet believe they are entitled to the rewards or benefits of the class.

If our earthly teachers find that attitude reprehensible, how much more so does God?

Let us all be students who have open ears and hearts. Let us all be pupils willing to learn and grow. Let us all joyfully sit at the feet of the Master teacher and listen – His lessons will never miss the mark. #TheMasterTeacher #GodsPupils