No better attitude can fill the child of God (or any one for that matter) than that expressed by the psalmist in Psalm 119:12 when he said, "Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes." We need desperately to know the word of the Lord which is "able to make thee wise unto salvation." 2 Tim. 3:15. The commandment of the Lord is "study to show theyself approved unto God." 2 Tim. 2:15.

During the time that Christ was upon the earth, the Jews had lost sight of their need for God's word and had substituted for it their traditions. In Matt. 15 :3 the Lord asked them, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your traditions?" By forsaking the Scriptures for their traditions and the conimandments of men, they had made their worship vain. Matt. 15 :9. So it was that the Lord told them on another occasion, "Search the Scriptures." John 5 :39.

Since God teaches us through His word we ought to make it our constant companion. If our attitude is like that of the psalmist, we will daily study God's revealed will. We have the example of the noble Bereans who "received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures DAILY, whether those things were so." Acts 17:11. The question facing us is, Do we really want to be taught the statutes of the Lord ? When we do not avail ourselves of the opportumtv to study the Word in the Bible classes provided by the elders of the church, are we not in reality saying, "Lord, do NOT teach me thy standards"? When we hear preaching that condemns or is contrary to what we have believed or practiced for years and we refuse to study to see if our ideas are correct, are we not saying, "Lord, do NOT teach me thy statutes"?

Again from the Psalms we get a passage to which we should give careful consideration. "Teach me thy way, O Lord." Psalm 27:11. This is the cure for the world. Let all seek the Lord's way and peace will come to the world. Let all seek His way and strife and division will cease in the Lord's body. When we fully realize that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," Jer. 10:23, and that God's ways and thoughts are not our ways, Isa. 55:8, 9, we will seek and strive to enter in the strait gate. Let us remember that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.

Some will say that every one should be free to choose his own way. The Bible is replete with examples which show vividly that God does not allow us to follow the path we choose. The example of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 should forever show the futility of walking in any path other than the Lord's way.

If we do not follow God's way, heaven will not be our home. We cannot change God's law. When God teaches us that the alien sinner must believe, Jn. 3:16; repent, Lu. 13:3; confess, Matt. 10:32; and be baptized, Acts 2:38 in order to have the remission of his sins, He means what He says. We should accept this as His way and walk therein. When He teaches the baptized that they should "live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," Titus 2:12 and "to abstain from all appearance of evil," I Thess. 5:22, again He means what He says.

Instead of trying to figure out a way to circumvent His plain teaching let us say sincerely, "Teach me thy way, 0 Lord." Someday our life on this earth will end and we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Where we spend eternity will be determined by the way in which we walk in this life. If we walk in the broad way, destruction; but if we walk in His narrow way, eternal life. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" Psalm 90:12. Let us not wait for a convenient season to begin walking in the Lord's way, for such a time will never come. Let us lay aside the frail, timeworn excuses and accept His way.

"Teach me thy way, 0 Lord."

Truth Magazine III:2, p. 3
November 1958