An Opportunity to Learn
What does a parent ask their children after they come home from school?
Some will ask, “Did you learn anything today?” But many more will say something like, “Did you have fun today?”
With regard to schooling, perhaps it does not matter much which question is asked and which priority is therefore being revealed. But the same question is often asked about church: Did we have fun at church today? Did we enjoy church?
Instead, we should be asking, “What are we learning of and from Jesus?”
Jesus gives us the great privilege of having the opportunity to learn from Him. Throughout the Gospels, He speaks in a way that addresses life’s big questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Does life even matter?
Knowing Christ as personal Lord and Savior changes the way someone thinks about these big topics. It transforms their perspective on time, on resources, on career, on the kind of person they want to marry or the kind of spouse they want to be. It does this because to know Jesus truly is to invite Him to be the authority in life. Everything changes as we learn from Him.
Coming to Jesus begins with learning that Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous (that’s Him) for the unrighteous (that’s us), to reconcile us to God (1 Peter 3:18)—and responding to that. Simply having a head knowledge of this is not equal to believing it, trusting it, and being happily yoked to the one who offers us all this.
We all know people who are trying to unscramble the riddle of their lives, putting the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together as best they can, and we’ve all been in the same position. But until we are willing to learn from God, the pieces will not fit. But now we can truly know God, not because of our intellectual prowess but because God chooses to make Himself known through the truth of His word.
Are you willing to learn from Jesus in every area of your life? Do you see it as a privilege, and not a burden, to follow His teaching and place yourself under His authority? Be sure to seize every opportunity to learn gospel truth, and may it satisfy your heart’s longings and transform your life day by day.
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
Ephesians 4:17–32
The New Life
17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22to put off your old self,6 which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil. 28Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 5:1–2
Walk in Love
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
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