IN my last posting I spoke to learning fundamental principles and grounding in key verses of the Bible. Over the years I’ve discovered one indelible fundamental to add to the list critical to understanding and spiritual growth – the necessity of the teachable heart.
I COULD talk at length on this topic, remembering how our Lord makes repeated warning regarding having ears to hear. In conducting educational and training meetings over the years I could always tell when one walked into a room and sat down whether or not they are engaged in the process, were teachable. There are those who “lean into it,” alert, eye forwards, materials in hand, with ear turned and ready. Then there were those who leaned back, arms crossed, eye on the clock or staring off in space, their mind somewhere else, with ear tuned out. I have come to the conclusion that by and large, when people “don’t get it,” it is not because they can’t, but because they won’t.
MANY years ago – I’m thinking almost 50 – I stumbled upon the ministry of a particular individual named is Miles J. Stanford who had a singular impact on my Christian walk and growth in Christ. He has since gone to be with the Lord. He has written several little books on Christian growth under the titled banner The Green Letters. He also wrote several concise devotional booklets called None But The Hungry Heart. When I discovered him I was a Dispensational Arminian in my views, so I would say there are things in his writings that I would not necessarily agree with today. But in my humble estimation, that does not disqualify much, if any, of what he has to say on spiritual growth principles. I frequently return to his writings and devotional material, benefiting greatly in his insights and observations, noting where I might differ or improve my understanding in the exercise of “iron sharpening iron” (Prov. 27:17).
WITH that said, below is a particular “first” mediation that has stuck with me over the years. In lieu of my opening comments, it is not insignificant that it is numbered 1.1, meaning it is the first devotional word from Miles’ first devotional book, None But The Hungry Heart, emphasizing the necessity and core of teachability. I recall the moment and place when I first read it, and it often comes mind when I observe others “sleeping walking” through life in general and more specially, living the Christian Life without purpose and direction. So, with that, He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (Matt 11:15)
In the wondrous blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15 & Job 2:10
***********************************
1-1. NOTHING DAUNTED
“Blessed are they that . . . seek Him with the whole heart” (Psalm 119:2).
Once the Holy Spirit instills within our hearts the hunger for God’s very best, all must and will become secondary to this supreme goal: ” . . .the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). Our puny, worthless all exchanged for the One who is All in all! “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:36)
“A sage of India was asked by a young man how he could find God. For some time the sage gave no answer, but one evening he asked the youth to come and bathe with him in the river. While there he gripped him suddenly and held his head under the water until he was nearly drowned. When he released him the sage asked him: ‘What did you want most when you were under the water?’ ‘A breath of air,’ he replied. To which the sage answered, ‘When you want God as you wanted the breath of air, you will find Him.'” -G.G.
“Every Christian will become at last what his desires have made him. We are all the sum total of our hungers. The great saints have all had thirsting hearts. Their cry has been, ‘My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God….’ Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent believers look with and entertain no hope of reaching.” – A.W.T.
“For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9)
