Show Me, Teach Me , Lead Me Part 3

SHOW ME, TEACH ME, LEAD ME – Part 3

Show me Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5)

III        Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

This part of David’s prayer is perhaps the most difficult.

Again, imagine David’s prayer of Psalm 25:4-5 to represent the different phases of your journey with Christ. You requested the Lord to show you what His ways look like and in doing so you realize how radically different His ways are from your own. You then make yourself teachable. Only by His grace are you able to put aside your ‘know-it-all/I know what’s best for me’ attitude, and humbly become open to the Lord’s way of handling various issues and situations in your life. You have a deeper understanding of what it means to mirror Christ both in the good times as well as the bad, in skirmishes as well as in resolving conflicts.

But now comes that hard part… the bending of the will to the lead of His Spirit.

To say, “lead me” goes beyond merely acknowledging how different His ways are and having a deep theological understanding of His teachings. Here is where the rubber hits the road, or rather where the fun really starts. To have Him lead you, is to relinquish yourself of power, right, freedom and authority and to hand it all over to Him. I mean everything. You are no longer king/queen orthe highest authority over your life, He is. This is not easy because it rubs against the very grain of our fallen nature.

WE are the ones who want to be (and remain) in charge of our lives.
WE want to call the shots and determine what is best for us.
WE decide what’s truth and what is right or wrong.
WE make our own destiny.

It’s the very root motivation behind the Original Sin back in the Garden of Eden. The prospect of becoming like God was a very attractive proposition that was presented to our first parents. But being completely unaware of the serpent’s deception, they took the bait and instead of acquiring the godly status they were falsely promised, they ran and hid in the bushes in utter shame of their actions. Since then there’s been this innate desire in all of us to be our own god. To freely submit to another ‘unconditionally’ is unnatural. Even when unforced submission is done, say in relationships or legal/contractual agreements, it’s usually from a selfish motive where we’re only doing it because of what we can get out of it.

We are not strong enough to say to God “lead me” on our own because our pride and rebellious nature will get in the way. Here’s where we need the help of God’s grace and the work of His Spirit in our lives so that we can avoid the mistake of the first Adam who gave in to temptation in the Garden of Eden and follow the example of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who resisted temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had the opportunity to pull out of His assigned task to bear the weight of our sins and to incur the full wrath and judgement of God, but rather than pleading for God to remove the cup of this incredible responsibility from Him, He instead  prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will, but yours be done.”

This act of surrender is not done in blind faith! In fact nowhere does Scripture teach us to exercise blind faith in anything. That’s really no different than a fool’s wishful thinking. Rather the Word teaches us that the faith we are to exercise must be rooted in fact. For example, if you continue to read the rest of verse 5, David explains why he is willing to make such a request for God to lead him,

For you are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

God has proven Himself to David numerous times. He has shown Himself to be dependable, faithful and true. So in response to God’s goodness, David, the legendary general of Israel’s army and future warrior king, was willing to take the posture of a lowly servant and entrust his entire life to God. That’s why he has no problem to wait on God “all the day” to hear his next instruction. This language is saturated in David’s deep longing for intimate relationship with His Maker. As if to say, ‘Here I am….Let’s go for a walk…..You lead, for you know this area way better than I do. I don’t have the faintest clue…..I’m all ears.’

When  you really think about it, would it not make sense for God to lead you? Nobody knows your life (and should I add yourself) better than He does and He knows the full gamut that awaits you in your journey. The challenges, trials and surprises have all been included and as much as they may catch you off guard, God had full knowledge of them way before you even took your first step. Why is it like that? I believe it’s to refine your character so that you can mirror the image of Christ to your world the same way the full moon reflects the sun’s light at night. However, the way this can truly happen is not for you to simply acquire more biblical information, nor just to obtain deeper understanding through what He has taught you, but to surrender to His lead and be obedient.

“Not my will Lord, but yours be done in my life.”