Teachable

SCRIPTURE: Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. Psalm 86:11-13 NIV

THOUGHT: David didn’t love God in a go-to-church-on-Sabbath-and-be-a-good-boy kind of way. His was a lived experience, taut with danger, pregnant with life, rich with words and The Word. By the time he was 16, he had killed a lion and a bear with a slingshot, and soon did the same to the giant who taunted Israel and Israel’s God, basically leading an army into victory. He ruled a kingdom in the age of its grandeur, wrote songs and danced before the Lord, undignified in his own mind. He sinned and repented and loved and built and failed – but a prayer like this is why I think God loved David so. If God will only teach him, there are a lot of things that will follow.

It all begins with humility: I need your teaching! Then, once David knows the way of the Lord, things fall into place because he knows he can trust God’s faithfulness to those ways. He then asks for the antidote to ambivalence: an undivided heart. In that heart, undivided by impure thoughts and selfish motives, will be found a holy fear of God’s own purity, a visceral, perpetual praise, felt to the marrow. One that changes life here on earth. Simplifies purpose and mission. Clarifies truth. Encompasses eternity. One that rightfully acknowledges the love that has delivered, redeemed, and resurrected.

PRAYER: Oh God, teach us your way, that we may rely on your faithfulness; give us undivided hearts, so that we walk in appropriate fear and perpetual praise of your very name.

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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.

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