Job 36:22 “God is exalted in his power.
    Who is a teacher like him?

God is called many things in the Bible, but to my awareness, this is the only place He is called a teacher. However, titles aside, the Bible speaks countless times of God teaching things to mankind, His children, either individually or as a group. This actually only stands to reason, because God is omniscient and we are born ignorant. On top of that, as Ronald Reagan famously said, it’s not that we don’t know anything, it’s that so much of what we know simply isn’t true. If we were genuinely smart, that would make us eager to know more of Him, more than knowing anything else. However, we prove our stupidity by chasing after all sorts of other things. It’s not that the pursuit of knowledge is bad, it’s that we need to base it on the awareness of our Creator, and that we are created beings. The ultimate stupidity is striving to prove God doesn’t exist. In the first place, proving a negative is logically impossible, and in the second place, we don’t think out the unavoidable consequences of either side of that question being true. People try to deny the existence of God in order to avoid accountability, but they don’t think out the absolute nihilism that would result if He didn’t exist. Recently a famous British atheist admitted publicly that he would rather live in a Christian nation than in any other kind, because of all the moral and ethical things that attach to Christian faith. Some people think they want to be free from such moral and ethical “constraints,” but they don’t think out how life would be for them if the people around them didn’t have such constraints. God is indeed the ultimate Teacher, but we aren’t very good students!

As someone with Teacher gifting, this is naturally an important topic for me. God is my perfect example, but the same thing may be said for every one of the other gifts mentioned in Romans 12. My focus needs to be first of all on being a better student, allowing Him to show me how much of what I “know” is incorrect, and molding me more and more into the likeness of His Son. (2 Corinthians 3:18) I am to be a teacher, counselor, and coach, but I can’t do any of it right without Him. (John 15:5) I must never forget that I am no “better” than the people around me, however much information I might possess. I am to share what God has given me, not from an attitude of superiority but in gratitude that we have such a gracious and loving God. In myself, I am never the authority, but God has given me the privilege of speaking and acting as His agent, as He has done for every believer. I am to lead those around me, by word and by example, to submit and listen to Him more and more consistently and accurately, so that His will may be done in and through us for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I ask for clear guidance as to what I am to speak from the pulpit this Sunday. You say so much to me, and I only stand in the pulpit once a week. Help me be Your agent on every level, never in pride but always in humble gratitude, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!