How to break the “live & learn” cycle!

Probing Proverbs: 1:4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young.

Here we see the power of the Word of God! Most of life is made up of "living and then learning," however Scripture can change that cycle! If we are willing we can learn from God truths concerning life and then Live! How much better it is to learn and live!

Consider how much grief we can miss if we are wise enough to learn from God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate us as we walk our path of life. This does not mean we will not have troubles, or trials or even experience personal failures; they are a reality in this life. There is one thing this life has taught me…I would rather deal only with the woes that this world brings me, instead of dealing with all the “self inflicted” ones my own sinfulness and stupidity bring me. Yes, we will fall at times, because we have that old sin nature in us, yet, if we choose to pay attention to God, we can gain much wisdom that can lead us to live in a way that leads to learning and then living.

Notice what this Proverb promises. "Insight" "knowledge" and "discernment"...not to the educated scholar or the person that has tucked many years under their belt! God is in favor of all of us getting educated and deep in study, plus we all know that certain teachings require some years of living to “really get,” however, even though you don’t have a college degree, even if you have not lived a long life, God’s Word can help anyone still see with eyes of wisdom, His wisdom! It can bring a young person the discernment that usually only the older person has. His Word explains the complexity of Truth, His Spirit allows us to receive and comprehend it.

So many believers hunger earnestly to understand what God desires for their life, yet they fail to find it and after a period of time seem to accept this frustration and move to a nominal experience with Christ. I have heard "Pharisees" judge that most of these believers either are not authentic believers, or just carnal. 

From all my years of shepherding, listening to so many hearts, I cannot believe those two judgments. I believe instead, that the cause of this is from an ignorance of how our walk with Christ works. Many believers have been influenced by "religiosity" in such a way that they have become delusional that a "relationship"...a deep, intimate relationship can "just happen!" They believe that by following a system of things to do, intimacy with our eternal Creator will suddenly manifest itself. Nothing is further from the truth! In fact nothing is more contrary to the plan God design for us than that. God never desired a dead set of rituals as a means to honor and know Him. No, God designed it to be the most difficult and the most rewarding…it is called a Relationship! You get out of it what you put into it! Notice how Paul put it:

Philippians 3:8–11 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Like any relationship, you have to lose yourself in some ways to find the other person. God does not want us to stop existing as individuals, but He knows that if we approach a relationship with Him based on what it will do for us…well we have a myriad of failed marriages that prove my point. The richest relationship is when we die to most of our wants and prefer the needs and wants of the one that we are pursuing. When both individuals approach a relationship like that, the reward is the richest in the world! God has already denied Himself completely in becoming flesh, and the sacrifice to provide redemption! So now the ball is in our court. This is why the Scriptures are so important because they supply the data that the Holy Spirit takes to illuminate us to Who our God is and how we can love Him.

No matter your age, or education, God’s Word will open your mind, soul and heart to know Him, to know Him deeply!

“The so what?”

How are you trying to incorporate learning God’s Word into your life? Are you trying to “find” the time or “make” the time? Challenge: Set aside 5 minutes a day to read the Word, not an hour, begin with 5 minutes; before you know it 30 minutes will have passed!