TOPIC : ARE YOU CULTIVATING A TEACHABLE ATTITUDE?
REV. EKOW ESHUN
SCRIPTURE: HEBREWS 5:12
( NKJV)
”For even though by this time you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very first principles of God’s Word. You have come to need milk, not solid food.”
God’s will for us is that you and I will grow, develop, prosper and excel in all areas of our lives. Then ultimately, we will look more like the Lord Jesus Christ in every way ie in life and ministry. We, however, need to understand that we are primarily responsible for our spiritual growth and personal development.
Thank God for fathers, mothers, mentors, pastors, teachers, leaders and other people who are strategically positioned in our lives to mentor and nurture us. Ultimately, each one of us must take responsibility first for our spiritual growth and total development.
The big question is, ”how can I develop and improve?” The basic answer to this question is, “Am I willing to learn and be teachable? “All development has its roots in learning. We are talking about gaining and applying knowledge or information for your personal benefit. Today’s verse reveals an attitude in the Hebrew believers that was a minus and came back to hurt them. The preceding Verse 11 tells us:
”Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your hearing and sluggish (even slothful in achieving spiritual insight).”
Simply put, these Hebrew believers had become unteachable. They had developed a slow, unwilling attitude towards teaching and learning. Unfortunately , the result was that, though God was willing to use them in a bigger way, their attitude hindered them from experiencing something bigger, better and more fulfilling.
They didn’t grow. They refused to learn and mature. Sad to say, at the time when they were expected to be better and to function as teachers of others, they were still behaving like typical babies and students. You and I cannot blame anyone for our lack of improvement, growth and development. It is said that, ”read today, and lead tomorrow. Study today, and make a difference tomorrow.”
Are you willing and ready to pay the price to grow and improve? Are you willing to be more teachable and make more progress? Progress responds to knowledge. Knowledge responds to studying. Discoveries come to those who remain teachable and studious. You can grow and make a difference.
PRAYER
Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to learn and grow into the fulness and stature of my Lord Jesus Christ. I bless you for the input of pastors, leaders , parents and others who have impacted my life so far. Thank you for your grace, wisdom and a teachable spirit so that I can continue to grow and not stagnate spiritually in Jesus’s name, Amen.
FURTHER READING (AMPL.)
1 CORINTHIANS 13:8-13
[8]Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
[9]For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).
[10]But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).
[11]When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
[12]For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].
[13]And so faith, hope, love abide [faith–conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope–joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love–true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.