By Shirley Rosemarie Evans
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
I once heard Priscilla Shirer cite an interesting fact: Did you know that the pattern of each giraffe’s spots is unique, like fingerprints? It is these unique markings that mommy giraffes use to recognise their babies. Right after birth, bonding occurs as the unique patterns of the mother and the baby are studied and imprinted, so that, along with scent and sound, they will recognise their infants.
Did you know that? I didn’t either, but isn’t it fascinating?
As believers, we delight in Jesus as we spend time with Him and study His word so that we can learn from Him. In fact, Jesus bids us to learn from Him, and He wants us to know that He is gentle and humble in heart. Gentle and humble ought to give us confidence in knowing that we serve a loving Saviour who is accessible to us and wants to be known by us.
No other religion can claim to serve a god who wants to be in a relationship with his subjects. Our God is unique not only because He is God but because His character can be known. In Acts 17 we find the story of Paul confronting a group of philosophers in Athens who had made shrines to their many gods, but so as not to offend any unknown god they made an extra shrine marked “to an unknown god,” Paul identifies this God as the only true God the creator of all things and tells them that this God’s purpose in creating man was that man would seek after God and perhaps find Him because indeed He isn’t far from any one of us.
Let’s be honest, it would be difficult to have true lasting delight in someone you did not know. We can learn Him through His mighty acts as recorded in scripture. We can learn from Him as we spend time basking in His presence. Scripture invites us to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find time to help us in our time of trouble. (Hebrews 4:16). We can learn of Him as we recount and reflect on His hand at work, weaving through the stories of our lives. We see Him at work in so many ways, delivering, helping, providing, saving and keeping us.
We also learn our God in the trials in our lives. David said in Psalm 119:71, “It was good for me to be afflicted that I might learn your decrees” Trouble ought to drive us to God, and as we turn to Him, different aspects of His character become real to us. We know Him as the provider God when the house is in foreclosure, and God shows us the way to make the debt be paid. We know Him as Lord of Hosts when we are in a battle for our marriage or our children, and God steps in, changes hearts, and turns situations around. Yes, we learn Him in our difficult seasons.
The more we know Him, the more we delight in Him. We know who He says He is, and we see His faithfulness and His mercy at work in our lives.
Our Heavenly Father who art in heaven, teach us your ways. Help us, Father, to have a heart that is willing to learn and a readiness in mind to apply that which we have learnt so that we are daily being transformed to become more like Jesus. This is the prayer of our hearts as we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
