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A Teachable
Heart |
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"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." — Ps 25:4-5 (NKJV) |
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What
does being "teachable" really look
like? Simply this: a sincere, humble, heartfelt
acknowledgement that I don't have all the answers
and could sure use some help. Sounds easy, right?
Wrong.
By
nature, we're all prideful, self-seeking glory-hogs.
We want to look smart, together, successful.
We want the credit when things go right, and
we want to pass blame when things go wrong. Therefore,
the daily choice to embrace a child-like,
teachable heart flies in the face of our fleshly
desires, making this a difficult pursuit, to
say the least.
Snapshot: The Humble
King
To
start off, I want to get a broader picture of
King David's heart displayed in Psalm 25:4-5.
So, I open the Treasury
of Scripture Knowledge  ,
a powerful cross-reference tool included with
four out of our five PC Study Bible library
packages, which instantly provides me with a
list of scriptures containing the same thought
as my key passage (click
here to see it).
Here's
a selection of what I found: |
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| How
PC Study Bible helped this portion of
my study: |
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Wherever you see this icon, click
it to view a screen shot from
PC Study Bible of the item described. |
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To
get a broader picture of King David's
teachable heart, I used the Treasury
of Scripture Knowledge to
find a list of scriptures containing
the same theme as my key passage. |
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For
even more depth, I used one of my
original language study tools, The
Complete Word Study Series,
to examine the Hebrew meaning of
the word "wait" in Psalm
25:5. |
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REFERENCE
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COMPLETE
PASSAGE (all taken from the NKJV)
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| "Give
ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and
my God, for to You I will pray. My voice You
shall hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning
I will direct it to You, and I will look up." |
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"Lead
me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because
of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face."
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"Teach
me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a smooth
path, because of my enemies."
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"Teach
me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your
truth; unite my heart to fear Your name."
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"Cause
me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
for in You do I trust; cause me to know the
way in which I should walk, for I lift up
my soul to You."
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Based
on the sheer repetition of this theme throughout the Psalms,
it's obvious that the deep cry of David's heart is to wait
patiently for the Lord's instruction and guidance, trusting
Him wholeheartedly in every aspect of his life.
Examining the Original
Hebrew
Let's
take our glimpse into David's teachable heart one step
further with one of my original language study tools, The
Complete Word Study Series .
Sold as an add-on module for PC Study Bible Version
3 or 4, CWSS makes in-depth Greek
and Hebrew word study accessible for average Bible students
like myself by breaking down each verse in the Bible,
then providing links to Strong's definitions and grammatical
information about each word or phrase.
Here's
an example of the information available for the word "wait" in
Psalm 25:5: |
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| STRONG'S
DEFINITION |
OT:6960 — qavah (kaw-vaw');
a primitive root; to bind together
(perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect;
(figuratively) to expect:
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| KJV
- gather (together), look, patiently,
tarry, wait (for, on, upon). |
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| GRAMMATICAL
INFORMATION |
The Piel
Perfect (pipf) indicates
perfective achievement of a result
or state, viewed as a whole,
in the active voice. "...he
still taught the people knowledge..." (Eccl
12:9); "...he hath profaned
the hallowed thing of the LORD..." (Lev
19:8).
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What
does this tell us about David's faith? That he was willing
to "tie himself down" in patient expectation — to
humbly lay aside all other options — believing that
his God would come through to instill in him the direction
and wisdom he needed for success. A teachable heart is
willing to wait! |
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Take
Time to Reflect
As
we conclude this month's study, take
a minute to reflect on what we've learned
by answering the following questions:
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How
easily do you accept correction? |
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Do
you try to avoid blame when problems
occur? |
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Do
you wait on God for direction,
or get impatient and do things
your own way? |
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Next
month, we'll look at two more powerful
characteristics of child-like faith: faithful
trust and unconditional
obedience. In the meantime,
remember to encourage your friends and
family to sign-up for our free email
Bible studies at www.biblesoft.com.
See
you next month!
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| Action
Step |
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| Sit
down with your spouse (or a close friend)
and ask him/her to give you an honest assessment
of how teachable they think you are. |
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make sure they don't gloss over the real
issues — this is for your own good! |
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| • |
THE
NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1982,
Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. |
| • |
THE
COMPLETE WORD STUDY BIBLE. Copyright © 1991,
1994, 2002 AMG International, Inc. |
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THIS STUDY
within PC Study Bible |
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this study into your PC Study Bible Version 4 library: |
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select "Open" or "Run" in
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 DIG
DEEPER
with PC Study Bible |
| 1 |
HUMBLE
DEPENDENCE
A look at genuine, child-like dependence upon the Lord, as
seen in the life of the Apostle Paul. |
| 2 |
A
TEACHABLE HEART
When was the last time you just sat down at God's feet and
listened, just to find out what He might say? |
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| A
4-volume set by Dr. Spiros Zodhiates including, The
Complete Word Study: New Testament, The
Complete Word Study: Old Testament, The
Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, and (NEW!) The
Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament.
Designed to allow you to discover for yourself the meaning
of
the
Hebrew
and Greek words that stand as the foundation for the
text of the English Bible. |
| Click
here to learn more» |
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Click
here if you'd like to find out more about PC Study Bible
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